18 September 2024
Tech and defense stakeholders: Strengthened collaboration between research and defense can turn cybersecurity into a business venture
Denmark has a unique opportunity to double its current revenue in the cybersecurity sector while enhancing its resilience against hybrid threats, according to Lars Bo Larsen from the National Defense Technology Center, Thomas Riisgaard Hansen from DIREC, and Peer Heldgaard Kristensen from Security Tech Space.
It is now widely recognized that a hybrid war is being waged against both military installations and civilian targets, including critical sectors such as energy and transport.
As one of the most digitized countries in the world, Denmark relies on digital systems in areas ranging from transportation, energy providers, to hospitals. This makes us particularly vulnerable unless we develop a robust cyber defense against this growing hybrid warfare.
The risks became evident earlier this summer when GPS signal interference forced the rerouting or cancellation of flights. We have also seen cyberattacks on Danish utilities that almost paralyzed services like electricity, water, and heating, a crisis averted only by switching to manual operations.
To safeguard both critical military and civilian infrastructures, we need a cyber shield to defend against such threats. This includes ensuring secure data sharing between military and essential societal units, establishing reliable communication channels, and detecting potential cyberattacks.
An enormous potential
To achieve this, it requires the government to invest more in cybersecurity and to educate significantly more people with cyber skills than we do today. However, the field also holds a tremendous economic potential, which could become Denmark’s next major business success.
We have the potential to double the revenue of the Danish cybersecurity industry revenue to DKK 13 billion, while simultaneously making Denmark more resilient to cyberattacks.
The IT and cybersecurity sectors are already crucial contributors to the economy. Currently, the cybersecurity industry employs just over 10,000 people, representing ten percent of the entire IT workforce. But the sector could expand significantly, driven by the increasing need to protect our digital infrastructure.
New regulations, including the EU’s NIS2 directive, and hightened political focus on defense and preparedness, will create a growing demand for cybersecurity professionals. A recent report from Deloitte estimates that reaching an acceptable level of cybersecurity will require four to five times the current number of employees, not just within the IT sector, but across other industries as well.
A call for targeted efforts
The good news is that Denmark already has the frameworks and a well-established cybersecurity ecosystem to build on.
There is strong collaboration among businesses, government agencies, organizations, and research and educational institutions. However, this collaboration has primarily concentrated on digital security in businesses. We now need to elevate cybersecurity to a broader societal and commercial priority.
This requires a focused effort. Therefore, we propose that the government allocates DKK 20 million annually to cyber research and establishes a new dual-use program that bridges defense and research community.
Although Denmark’s cybersecurity industry may be small on the global stage, it excels in several areas. These include cutting-edge cryptographic methods that can protect our data from future quantum computers, as well as AI-driven surveillance algorithms capable of detecting anomalies, faults and cyberattacks.
We also have algorithms that allow data stored in the cloud to be processed without exposing it to hackers. This represents a significant growth opportunity, particularly for export, if efforts are directed towards developing products and services for both the defense and civilian sectors.
