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CESAR .
2024-05-14T14:42:26
CESAR Is Accredited as New Cybersecurity Competence Center by Embrapii
Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) and Embrapii (Brazilian Industrial Research and Innovation Company) have announced that CESAR, the world-renowned innovation hub headquartered in Porto Digital, has been designated as its latest competency center to develop deeper knowledge, skills, and innovation in cybersecurity.
CESAR is now one of nine Embrapii Competence Centers across seven different specializations that aim to advance frontier technologies, expand and strengthen scientific and technical competence in R&D, drive collaborative technology partnerships, and attract or create startups.
As the newly designated Cybersecurity Competence Center for Brazil, CESAR is tasked with developing an ecosystem of associated companies to accelerate the exchange and development of cybersecurity knowledge tailored to meet current and future market demands.
Through various financial contributions from members that range from startups to larger, more established companies or multinational corporations, the budding cybersecurity ecosystem will increase the long-term financial stability of the resulting R&D projects.
The benefits for the contributing associates at various levels range from summer job training for undergraduates or full scholarships for advanced degrees in software engineering or design at CESAR, to access to the scientific research results, CESAR consultancy hours to research and solve real problems, or access to the center’s laboratory infrastructure, among other benefits.
The announcement made at CESAR in Recife was attended by Luciana Santos, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Pernambuco authorities and industry representatives.
“Cybersecurity is a powerful tool to ensure the proper functioning of today’s indispensable systems, such as government channels, which provide the population with digital services to facilitate citizens’ access to information and procedures quickly and securely,” said Santos.
For the president of Embrapii, Francisco Saboya, with the increasing digitalization of industrial processes and increased connectivity, protecting systems and data against cyberthreats has become a top priority.
“Cybersecurity is not a matter of the distant future. This new competence center is an action by Embrapii for the immediate future. A robust cybersecurity infrastructure not only protects business assets, but it promotes innovation and sustainable growth by enabling organizations to fully leverage the benefits of the digital age,” said Saboya.
“The need for cybersecurity innovation is urgent today. Keeping up with the latest trends and constantly developing better solutions will be a never-ending story about the epic battle between the good and the bad guys,” said Eduardo Peixoto, CESAR CEO. “We, as a society, have grown more and more dependent on digital technologies, tools, and channels. Our job as a newly designated cybersecurity R&D center is to help protect these digital assets for people all over the world.”
Cybersecurity attacks on the rise in Brazil and beyond
The number of companies suffering cyberattacks has been steadily growing since the turn of the decade – including a five percent increase versus the previous year, per a 2023 Hiscox analysis. The report found that one in eight businesses attacked have resulted in big costs of US$250,000 or more, and attacks on small businesses with less than 10 employees have grown by more than half.
Brazil is the second most affected LatAm country as of 2022 with more than 103 billion attempted cyberattacks, per Febraban. In first place was Mexico with 187 billion cyberattack attempts. Yet, Brazil was ranked among the five countries with the slowest progress in cybersecurity, per “The 2022/2023 Cyber Defense Index 2022/2023” published by MIT Technology Review.
“This new designation is a big opportunity for us to advance cybersecurity knowledge, attract new talent to the region, and contribute valuable breakthroughs of interest to all business sectors,” said Dr. Ioram Sette, technical coordinator for CESAR’s new Cybersecurity Competence Center. “Our expertise in AI at CESAR is world-class, which is a vital technical component for cybersecurity R&D. We look forward to collaborating with other top cybersecurity institutions in Brazil and around the world to keep a step ahead of cybercriminals and to train more experts in the field.”
The four cybersecurity research areas CESAR will focus on are:
- Identity and Access Management (IAM): the IAM research line aims to study the evolution of mechanisms that protect access to data and systems, such as authentication, authorization and auditing.
- Data Protection and Privacy (DPP): the line of research studies techniques and mechanisms complementary to IAM to protect data and privacy, such as encryption, data anonymization, secure programming, DevSecOps and vulnerability analysis.
- Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI): the CTI line focuses on attack detection and prevention analysis, threat mining, forensic analysis and response to computer forensic incidents in order to design mechanisms capable of carrying out and promoting the improvement of cybersecurity of systems, networks and technological infrastructures.
- Legal, Ethical and Behavioral Aspects (ALEC): Human aspects are very relevant in the topic of cybersecurity. From a legal point of view, there are laws and regulations that govern, for example, cybercrime and the protection of personal data. Several standards such as PCI DSS, in the financial sector, and HIPAA, in healthcare, bring good practices for the care of sensitive data.
In 2016, CESAR was accredited as an Embrapii unit for IoT and connected products. Some of the collaborative RD&I projects that have resulted since then include the creation of the EyeFlow ubiquitous communication interfaces for autonomous vehicles for Volkswagen, a smart lipstick with AI application for Grupo Boticário, and a vehicle with intelligent assistance (VAI) for Wings.
“CESAR is a mega partner when it comes to design, technology and experience. They’re a trusted partner, great contributor, and we feel comfortable working with them to spur innovation”. – said Valter Ferreira, a corporate strategy and innovation executive at Volkswagen Trucks and Buses.
Following a recent R&D collaboration with NVIDIA on behalf of Brazilian energy giant Petrobras, João Paulo Navarro, a senior solutions architect at NVIDIA commented: “CESAR is a center of excellence, and we’re very pleased and proud to be a part of projects together. It is a super partner institute for RD&I collaboration with extremely qualified labor, capable of developing on NVIDIA platforms and helping us expand and accelerate our execution.”
Along with R&D consulting and teaching executives at larger corporations, a key objective of the new CESAR Cybersecurity Competence Center is the attraction and creation of deep-tech startups. CESAR has a long history in ventures that have accelerated and boosted some prominent startups including Tempest, a cybersecurity company bought by Embraer, and Neurotech, a fintech company acquired by B3, the Brazilian stock exchange, according to Peixoto.
CESAR: Brazil’s most complete innovation and knowledge center
CESAR has designed and developed innovative solutions with cutting-edge technology for more than 28 years, working together with more than 100 large companies in Brazil and around the world, in addition to serving more than 500 startups. Headquartered in Recife, in the heart of Porto Digital – one of the main technology parks in Latin America, it operates in an integrated manner with education, business acceleration and technology to elevate organizations to new levels of competitiveness.