SPIE chosen by the Grand Est region for its cybersecurity system as part of the France Relance plan

Published on 24 November 2022

Malakoff, 24 November 2022 - SPIE ICS, the French digital services subsidiary of the SPIE Group, the independent European leader in multi-technical services in the areas of energy and communications, has been awarded a contract to build a cyber security system for the Grand Est region. This collaboration will enable the company to meet the digital security requirements of local authorities as part of the France Relance plan.

Promoting a space of digital trust

SPIE ICS, a French digital services company (ESN), has been selected by the Grand Est region to help it implement a three-year cybersecurity plan as part of the France Relance plan. The objective: to create a partnership with a sovereign French player with the capacity to support it over the long term in order to define and implement the necessary actions to promote a digital trust area.

With its 5.6 million inhabitants, 9 departments and more than 5,000 municipalities, the Grand Est region is in full development. Faced with the increasing risks of cyber attacks, the region has a twofold challenge: to provide reliable services and a secure data environment both to its internal staff and to all of its constituents, such as the parents of the region's 352 secondary schools.

An operational plan in several stages

The cybersecurity component of the France Relance plan, steered by the ANSSI (National Agency for Information Systems Security), provides for the deployment of cybersecurity services for public and health organisations.

The first stage of this scheme consists of carrying out an audit of the existing situation, known as the "initial package", covering both technical and governance aspects: organisational audit, qualitative interviews with the business lines and key people to understand the cybersecurity issues and, finally, an offensive and defensive audit, with intrusion tests on the information systems. This results in recommendations as to the maturity to be achieved in terms of cybersecurity as well as the proposal of a 3-year plan for securing information systems on around ten themes according to the priorities selected.

Tailor-made local support

"The Grand Est region was already a customer of other SPIE Group entities and we were familiar with its challenges and context. It has renewed its confidence in us and selected us for our pragmatic approach and the high-level skills provided by both our local technicians and engineers and the experts in our national cybersecurity business unit," says Yanis Martinent, department manager of SPIE ICS. She adds: "The highly operational cybersecurity system was built jointly with the teams in the Grand Est region via iterative workshops. We were able to propose tailor-made actions that were appreciated by the Region's Digital Director, in compliance with the ANSSI's specifications.

Still within the framework of France Relance, this audit and recommendations stage is followed by the "Relay Pack" stage, with the concrete implementation of cybersecurity projects according to the recommendations delivered. SPIE ICS has just won this additional outsourcing service for supervision analysis and technical solutions, which will be carried out on site, two days a week, by an SPIE ICS architect based in Metz. The French ESN will therefore be able to support the Grand Est region for the next three years, drawing on its network of partners specialising in cyber security.

A strengthened relationship

The Grand Est region is working to strengthen the protection of its information systems and to offer its citizens secure connections and better data protection.

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