From Esch-Belval, the Restena Foundation and the University of Luxembourg co-organised the fourth annual CyberDay.lu on 14 October 2021. More than 90 participants via videoconference and about 40 students from the Lycée Guillaume Kroll in Esch-sur-Alzette attended the presentations of this morning dedicated to cybersecurity for research and education.

Monitoring, analysis, vigilance and preparation

The 2021 edition of CyberDay.lu started with a keynote speech by Mirjam Kühne, Chair of RIPE (Réseaux IP Européen). A particular emphasis has been placed on the community of European network operators gathered in the European association RIPE, whose objective is to develop a stable and secure Internet infrastructure.

Then, the insights and expertise of cybersecurity specialists from BEE SECURE, Restena, SECURITYMADEIN.LU, Telindus and  POST Luxembourg, provided various recommendations and valuable information, among them:

• Bot identification and traffic characterisation are essential to recognise and block Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks impacting service availability through resource exhaustion.
• Controlling the seller's reputation and legal existence, creating an account with a unique and strong password, taking a critical look at opinions published on the Internet, paying with virtual or pre-paid credit cards, and being actively vigilant against phishing e-mails are, among other things, essential to buy and pay online as safely as possible.
• Knowledge of one's assets, limiting one's attack surface, improving one's ability to detect and react are essential points to guard against vulnerabilities.
• Many artefacts are left behind on a computer when an attacker connects to it through an unauthorised wireless access point (Rogue Access Point) or a keylogger.

Services, training and European perspective

Beyond these recommendations and valuable information, GOVCERT.LU highlighted the essential services offered to its constituency consisting of Luxembourg’s ministries, administrations and public services, and critical infrastructure operators: vulnerability detection, security alerts and support request.

Then, the Lycée Guillaume Kroll and the Ministry of Education, Children and Youth spoke about student news. The new BTS cybersecurity, the latest higher education courses offered by the Lycée Guillaume Kroll, was presented. The focus was then on the new Europass digital credentials service, which allows students to share, in an easy way, their credentials with employers or universities. 

Finally, the European Commission shed light on the proposal for a Joint Cyber Unit, the revised Network and Information System Security (NIS) directive, and the Cybersecurity Competence Centre.  

Relive the event in pictures (and soon in video) and consult the presentations on cyberday.lu