Two Chairs of École polytechnique co-organise the ‘Cyr2fi’ conference on cyber risk

On 6 June 2024, the 'Internet of Everything' and 'Stress-test, Risk management and Financial Steering' Chairs of École polytechnique and ENSAE Paris co-organised the CyR2Fi (Cyber-risk and Cyber-resilience in Finance and Insurance) conference. This event, dedicated to cyber-risk in the financial sector, brought together academic experts, industry professionals and representatives of government institutions to discuss current and future challenges in cybersecurity.

The conference was introduced by Kees Van Der Beek, Director of Research at the École polytechnique and Vice-President Research at the Institut polytechnique de Paris. Emmanuel Gobet, professor at École polytechnique, researcher at the Center for Applied Mathematics (CMAP*) and scientific director of the "Stress-test, Risk management and Financial Steering" Chair supported by BNP Paribas and the Fondation de l'École polytechnique, whose research programme focuses on risk modelling, including cyber-risk, then presented his ambitions. Thomas Clausen, professor and researcher at the Computer Science Laboratory of the École Polytechnique (LIX**), introduced the "Internet of Everything" Chair that he heads, supported by CISCO, which hosted the conference at its premises in Paris. Caroline Hillairet, professor at ENSAE Paris and researcher at the Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST***) presented the "Cyber insurance: actuarial modelling" research initiative that she co-directs, coordinated by the Fondation du Risque de l'Institut Louis Bachelier.

The sessions covered various aspects of cybersecurity, including intrusion detection and resilience in the financial sector. Representatives from companies such as Orange, La Poste, BNP Paribas and Citalid shared their expertise. Speakers included Jacques Samain (Engineering Technical Leader for Outshift by CISCO) and Guillaume Ruty (Product Manager at HarfangLab), both graduates of the École polytechnique (class of X2011).

A round table discussion moderated by Sandrine Jarry-Leveque (Accenture) brought together experts from the ACYMA public interest group (Action contre la cybermalveillance), the French Treasury, BNP Paribas and Accenture. Discussions focused on regulatory issues, compensation for victims of attacks, and the importance of efficient cyber security governance.

The various speakers highlighted the fact that cyber risk is now considered to be the number one operational risk for banks. They also highlighted the need for a multidisciplinary approach combining technical expertise, strategy and awareness-raising. A parallel was also drawn between cyber and climate risk management, two areas that present similar challenges in terms of insurability and modelling.

Finally, the conference highlighted the many career opportunities in the field of cybersecurity, underlining the diversity of the professions and their cross-functional nature within companies. This dimension was of particular interest to the young members of the audience, including Jasmine Watissee, a 3rd year bachelor student at the École Polytechnique, specialising in mathematics and computer science. She explains: 

Since the Cyr2Fi conference, she has obtained her bachelor's degree and, after a gap year, plans to continue her studies with a master's degree in cybersecurity. She is currently doing a cybersecurity engineering internship with a company in the connected health devices sector.

*CMAP: a joint research unit CNRS, Inria, École polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, 91120 Palaiseau, France
**LIX: a joint research unit CNRS, École polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, 91120 Palaiseau, France
***CREST: a joint research unit CNRS, École Polytechnique, GENES, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, 91120 Palaiseau, France

About the Chairs

The "Stress-test, Risk management and Financial Steering" Chair

Founded and directed by Emmanuel Gobet since 2018 and headed since 2024 by Josselin Garnier, the "Stress Test, Risk Management & Financial Steering" Chair studies the resilience of banking activities to shocks of various kinds (credit, market, operational, climate, cyber security, reputation, etc.). Supported by BNP Paribas, this research chair benefits from the banking expertise and regulatory experience of its sponsor to better understand the challenges and issues facing the banking system. The applied mathematics work coordinated by the Chair’s team offers innovative approaches to risk modelling, simulation, statistical inference, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

The CISCO Chair in Internet Technologies and Engineering (« Internet of Everything »)

Created in 2020, the “Internet Technologies and Engineering” Chair is held by Thomas Clausen and supported by Cisco. It develops higher education in Internet technologies based on research undertaken jointly by X and its corporate sponsor. These projects are organized into a portfolio notably focused on high-capacity networks (5G, WiFi6, etc.), quantum networks and Cloud architectures.