Digitalization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer-readable) format. It is not a revolution, it is an evolution that is going on.

Digitalization is a part of our life. It generates more and more data, that needs to be stored, communicated, and processed. The ICT operators provide the infrastructures needed to deploy, use and rely on digital technology in all its aspects.  What are the new threats and their trends? How can we mitigate these risks and empower a secure digital life?

Energy is the lifeline of every society. As digitalization increases, the need for energy especially electrical energy grows proportionately. Maintaining the availability of energy and addressing the rising requirements in an environmentally friendly manner is essential for our global economy as well as society. Digitization is regarded as a hope for reducing global energy requirements and thus contributing to climate protection. So far, however, there is no evidence of this. Current studies predict that this trend has not yet materialized, and that energy consumption will increase because of digitization. Increasing energy consumption in the information and communication technology sector (ICT) and higher economic growth thwart a reduction in energy demand.

Technology advances including digitalization continue to drive increased productivity and effectiveness of traditional energy supplies, but greater strides are needed to reduce global CO2 emissions while meeting growing energy needs.  Nuclear Power is still a growing option with numerous EU States, the Middle East and the Far East.  In all cases advanced digitalization is being used to increase safety and efficiency of production.  New technologies such as small modular reactors are aggressively being pursued.  Fusion Reactors are also starting to make greater strides toward future commercialization.

• How is digitalization transforming energy needs? What is the impact on energy infrastructure?
• What is the role of digitalization and new technologies in promoting and enhancing safe, secure and sustainable Energy?

A large part of the public opinion today is being shaped in the online environment. Grabbing of phones in the morning and checking it around 100 times a day to visit our favourite news website or scroll through social media has become a new routine.

Keeping in mind that the public opinion equals to voters’ opinion, there have been long talks about how to preserve the free online space and secure that democracies have well-, and not mis-informed, voters at the same time.

As the COVID pandemic catalysed these discussions with the surge of narratives undermining the trust in the governments and their actions, and nurturing polarisation, the invasion in Ukraine has completely changed the rules of the game.

Since late February, European (online) information space has become a part of the Russian-Ukrainian war, witnessing the extreme rise of information manipulation, cyber-attacks or activation of trolls and bots. At times when democratic societies are under attack through the online space, the response cannot be based on soft measures but should be adequate to compensate for the methods and impact of our adversary. Whereas the blockage of RT and Sputnik News in Europe was a start, next steps should be bolder and involve as broad coalition of partners as possible. To save Europe’s information space from the effects of Russian war propaganda, the EU should enact against any actors currently enabling its spread. These are not only individual pages and actors, but also every single social media platform, including Telegram or Discord. On the other hand, all pro-democratic actors must be activated and balance the information attacks by a flood of values-based and fact-checked content. These measures are only possible with the help of solid technological solutions. Now is the time to bring them to the table and act.

Security is an area where cooperation between multiple stakeholders is particularly important: law enforcement agencies, first responders, critical infrastructure operators and other public service providers must describe their real needs so that research institutions can work with industry to develop innovative and useful solutions. In addition, experts from the legal and social sciences should accompany these developments to ensure that they comply with all regulations and contribute to societal well-being. Moreover, many security-related challenges, such as cybersecurity, border management, organised crime and terrorism require cross-border collaboration to come up with effective solutions.

Funding programs for security R&D such as the Austrian KIRAS programme and Cluster 3 within the Horizon Europe programme have proven successful in stimulating multi-stakeholder cooperation to strengthen the security and safety of European citizens.

This session will focus on the following aspects:

• What are the main objectives and strategies guiding security R&D programmes at national and international levels?
• How can these programmes help to mitigate the crises that are currently so threatening?
• Which best practice examples could be applied to counter future threats?

Covid-19 caused a global recasting of business and life process at the same time increasing the importance of digital transformation for companies, authorities, and entire societies. Digital innovations, new online offerings, remote digital services for both employees and for customers have become a matter of survival for many companies. Likewise, government entities and public institutions are faced with forced digital transformation of essential functions and public services.  Another evolution is the increased use of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to support many of the newly digitized services for customers and citizens.

In support of the above areas, the EU has targeted efforts to drive innovations and digital transformations in the security sector and to promote cooperative research and development between science, industry, and authorities.

• Digital Transformation for public authorities and government entities require R&D. Does the right framework and culture exist to involve public authorities in innovation and research initiatives?
• How can public representatives be better integrated into such research projects?

It seems to be an industry consensus that a cybersecurity and privacy doomsday will happen.  Jury is out on the date – but time is high to discuss the place. During the presentation I’ll argue that it will happen in our increasingly smart cities, and advocate for an coherent security approach and framework. One that would take into account not only the balance of threats and countermeasures, but the benefits and risks as seen from ethics, responsibility and transparency perspectives.

One of the greatest enablers of any cyber security program is a well training and capable work force. The transformation of industry into a new digital landscape also entails the transformation of the workforce that will use, maintain, and security the systems.  Developing and sustaining cybersecurity talent is an ongoing challenge across all industries.   Various studies show vacancies in key cybersecurity areas number close to 2 million annually.  Organizations that will conduct digital transformations must also address the need to build and sustain the required knowledge, skills, and abilities across the organization to ensure its success. This session addresses the human centric aspect of digital transformation and efforts that have been initiated to develop the needed capabilities. The panel will address questions related to

• strategies for building and sustaining capable cyber security staff
• experiences in delivering capability development activities
• success stories and lessons learned

Companies and organisations in all spheres of our life and in businesses are undergoing the digital transformations to outsourced, remote and virialized services.. At first glance, the benefits are obvious: efficiencies in productivity, cost savings, better customer experience and increased innovations. Countering the benefit, however, are the security risks one assumes. Consequently, companies must assess potential vulnerabilities and risks imposed by the expanded supply chain. Likewise, as the Solar Winds and Tesla cyber-attacks illustrate, supply chain dependencies have been noted and are being targeted by threat actors.

• What are effective strategies to managing security of the supply chain?
• Test & Certification: How do we gain security assurance of goods and services?
•  What roles does the government have in ensuring supply chain security?

Digital sovereignty — the idea that states should “reaffirm” their authority over the Internet and protect their citizens, institutions, and businesses from the multiple challenges to their nation’s self-determination in the digital sphere — is understood primarily as a legal concept and a set of political discourses. As a consequence, it is predominantly analysed by political science, international relations and international law. However, the study of digital sovereignty as a set of infrastructures and socio-material practices has been comparatively neglected. This talk will examine how the concept of (digital) sovereignty can be studied via the infrastructure-embedded “situated practices” of various political and economic projects which aim to establish autonomous digital infrastructures in a hyperconnected world.

The ongoing diffusion of digital technologies in all areas of our 21^st century economies have now led to a new culmination, the emergence of data ecosystems. As a platform that combines data from numerous providers and devices and that allocates different roles for the participants of the data community, data ecosystems are building up value through a facilitated usage of processed and enriched data and thereby are trying to balance the build-up of economies of scales and the cultivating of the necessary collaboration networks.

The innovative concept of data ecosystems is promising many new business opportunities, but at the same time it poses some difficult challenges for making the transition a success in ever more competitive environments: the selection of partners covering data producers, service and infrastructure providers and users; establishing solid governance structures and mutual trust between parties, plus ensuring operative interoperability are essential prerequesits for building new data ecosystems. Further, a safe reference architecture based on common agreed and designed standards for trustworthy data capturing, data transferring, data analysis, data processing and data usage have to be provided.

It is a declared vision of the European Union to build a data-driven economy by fostering common Data Spaces, by proposing the right regulatory frameworks regarding data governance, access, and reuse and by developing a trutful federated cloud infrastructure like the already advanced GAIA-X project and thus paving the way for AI solutions in the data field. This federated approach is intented to ensure data sourveraignity in Europe and enable new businesses based on the European values openness, transparency and trust.

To put the track of the IDSF in one summarizing conclusion: It is all about Data Protection requirements as we are familiar with in Europe as a unique approach to deal with equal market rules for diverse competitors with conditions for an open and flourishing Business, Research, Science, and Innovation compound.

Renamed speakers and panellists will discuss the wide-ranging topics and will try to find common ground for global and non-discriminating data ecosystems.

• What are the strategic objectives regarding the utilization of data in Europe?
• How can we ensure data protection and self souvereignity in a global environment?
• What are the chances, requirements and risks when shifting data utilization to federated data ecosystems?

What is concealed behind the sober technical façade of ubiquitous digitalization? The current phase of digitalization reveals itself in threefold form: as a co-evolutionary interplay of the datafication of areas of life; the algorithmization of selection processes; and the platformization of markets. This digital trinity is geared towards influencing our behavior, taking over social functions in a religion-like manner, and transforming the social order.