4 July 2025
Our society’s vulnerability to cyber threats is growing rapidly. Companies, citizens, and public authorities urgently need protection against both geopolitical instability and the technologies of the future—such as hostile AI systems. A new, broad-based partnership is now working to develop the next generation of Danish cyber technology.
By Pola Rojan Bagger, Communications Advisor, NFC
In the past, hackers could roughly be compared to burglars going from door to door, testing handles until they found an unlocked entry or a weak lock. In the future, hackers will be able to open millions of doors in seconds – doors you didn’t even know existed in your systems.
The technological evolution of cyber threats is moving at lightning speed. Experts predict that soon we will see AI-based systems: faceless, autonomous actors operating without human limitations, capable of acting as both cybercriminals and digital activists.
Danish companies are targeted by cyberattacks every day, and the costs are significant—not to mention the pressure on national security.
At the beginning of 2024, the average number of weekly cyberattacks against Danish companies increased by 32 percent from the first to the second quarter, according to the IT Industry Association. Meanwhile, the Danish Emergency Management Agency reports that 40 percent of Danish SMEs still lack an adequate level of digital security relative to their risk profile.
As our public infrastructure becomes increasingly digital, an attack on platforms like MitID, our water systems, or your online banking could potentially cause more damage than an armed terrorist attack.
And the hackers’ arsenal is only expanding. Experts foresee that quantum computers may one day be capable of breaking today’s encryption standards. Even if quantum technology is still some way from becoming a practical weapon, building effective defenses – especially for digital communication dominated by foreign tech giants – will also require significant time and resources.
A new partnership sees these challenges as both a threat and an opportunity. If we can strengthen the global competitiveness of Danish companies while fostering innovation and growth in the cybersecurity sector, we not only position ourselves better against digital threats – we also create strong commercial opportunities for Danish industry.
Four organizations are now joining forces in the strategic initiative Next Generation Cyber Security to bolster Denmark’s cybersecurity sector. In short, significant investments – amounting to millions of Danish kroner – are being made in the Danish cybersecurity ecosystem to identify, support, and develop cutting-edge solutions and drive growth.
The four partners:
The partners have collectively allocated 15 million DKK to universities and GTS institutes, in collaboration with at least one SME in each project consortium. Project applications will be evaluated by an internationally composed panel of experts.
Initially, the program has called for solutions within three key areas:
The program is anchored at DIREC, where Director Thomas Riisgaard Hansen emphasizes the need for vision and bold thinking from applicants: ”We could use a bit more ambition in Denmark. Of course, we shouldn’t start with unrealistic goals, but when everyone is talking about cybersecurity, you need to offer something truly exceptional to stand out. If we can tap into the vast knowledge available in Danish research environments and use it to give cyber companies a competitive advantage, we can both create new businesses and develop entirely new solutions. If these are implemented by public authorities, we also build a safer and stronger society,” says Thomas Riisgaard Hansen.
The project’s lead manager, Aleksander Moos – representing the Alexandra Institute and NFC – highlights the global security dimension of cyber threats:
“We’re standing on a burning platform of hybrid threats. There’s a war in Europe, and Russia has also targeted Denmark, not least due to our significant support for Ukraine. Naturally, we want to enhance security within society. But we also want to strengthen our industry and improve competitiveness. Will we truly become safer and develop stronger security companies by simply buying international solutions from foreign tech giants? There is a sovereignty issue here as well,” says Aleksander Moos.
A report published earlier this year by the analytics firm IDC confirmed that a substantial portion of the cloud-based IT market in Denmark is controlled by five major American tech companies: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Oracle.
In the first half of 2024, these companies accounted for 87 percent of Denmark’s cloud infrastructure—a rise from 81 percent in 2019.
The erosion of technological sovereignty should come as no surprise—it has been underway for decades, explains Jeffrey Scott Saunders, CTO at NFC. He points to several long-standing structural and historical challenges:
“Europe has generally lagged behind the USA and China in software development. We have no giants on the scale of Google or Microsoft, and for the past 40 years, we’ve aligned ourselves with American standards. So we are now in a race against time. Take the development of AI technologies, for example—both the USA and China are global leaders in filing new patents. Europe simply lacks the industrial muscle to compete on the same level today. We have a very long journey ahead of us,” says Jeffrey Scott Saunders, who leads Next Generation Cyber Security on behalf of NFC.
He stresses that technological sovereignty isn’t something the state can simply legislate. This is where the private sector and research communities play a crucial role:
“We may have 40 to 50 years of technological development ahead of us. The key is to develop more people with strong cyber competencies and build companies that deliver valuable solutions to concrete customer needs—whether those customers are critical infrastructure providers, the military, the police, or others. What we are doing is creating direct collaborations between researchers and SMEs to accelerate research and development in the right direction at a solid pace. We may be a small country, but we have tremendous potential,” says Jeffrey Scott Saunders.
“Will we become safer and develop stronger security companies by simply buying international solutions from foreign tech giants?”
— Aleksander Moos, Advisor and Project Manager
All eigth Danish universities and all seven GTS institutes collaborate on defence technology development. The goal is to advance Denmark’s defence and security.
