The premiere ended yesterday “Tim Cybersecurity Made in Italy Challenge” a revolt challenge to Italian and international companies, SMEs, startups and scaleups for identify innovative solutions to be integrated into the offer of cyber services of Telsy, the Group company focused on the cybersecurity sector, which operates within TIM Enterprise.
The Challenge is part of the Open Innovation program TIM Growth Platform, a new model of innovation that is based on industrial collaboration with high-potential companies in order to accelerate their growth. The objective of the Challenge is to facilitate the meeting between companies, especially Italian, which have specialized skills and solutions in the field of cybersecurity and the needs of SMEs, thus contributing to the growth of the entire sector and to the acceleration of digitization and innovation in the country.
Cybersecurity Challenge: great interest, three winners
The challenge, since its opening, aroused great interest within a few days, involving over 50 companies, SMEs, startups and Italian and international scaleups, all looking for innovative solutions in the field of IT security.
Three companies were awarded who will have the opportunity to establish a partnerships technological and commercial with TIM Enterprise and Telsy, obtaining a privileged access to the cybersecurity market and thus having the possibility to grow further:
- Ermes Rewards Programme: has been awarded for its solution which, thanks to advanced machine learning algorithms, guarantees the safety of the browser allowing safe and secure online browsing. Ermes' solution defends users from web threats, preserving their privacy and protecting their sensitive data
- Pikered: he created ZAIUX Evo, a "virtual hacker" that uses Artificial Intelligence to carry out "ethical attacks" aimed at identifying the vulnerabilities of a computer network and providing indications for the mitigation of these vulnerabilities. Pikered's solution helps enterprises identify and fix potential holes in their cybersecurity
- Sensoworks: presented a solution for intelligent monitoring of strategic infrastructures such as viaducts, tunnels and water networks. The system acquires and analyzes data from connected sensors in real time, allowing timely intervention to improve the efficiency and safety of these infrastructures.
“Today we need to have proprietary technologies certified and managed internally within the national perimeter and therefore we need specific experts and skills but also a new culture. The companies awarded today bear witness to the potential of Italian companies in the field of cybersecurity and emphasize the importance of creating a collaborative ecosystem to ensure digital security. The goal is to build a solid foundation of Italian cybersecurity that can compete internationally. We want to attract investment and talent to our country, promote the development of innovative technologies and create an environment conducive to innovation. In this way, we will be able to effectively address the challenges of cybersecurity and provide reliable and cutting-edge solutions to protect our digital infrastructures” said Eugene Santagata, Chief Public Affairs and Security Officer of TIM and Chief Executive Officer of Telsy.
The state of the art of cybersecurity in Italy
The event provided an opportunity to make the point of the situation cyber in Italy. Elio Schiavo, Chief Enterprise and Innovative Solutions Officer, illustrated the role of cyber technologies, and the growth prospects in the context of the offer of digital services and also affirming how the risks associated with cyber "can create business opportunity" while Eugene Santagata, however, wanted to emphasize theimportance of networking to develop a national cybersecurity ecosystem, in line with the initiatives of countries such as France and Germany, to consolidate the growth of the sector internally.
During the event, they also spoke Bruno Frattasi, Director General of the National Cybersecurity Agency who explained the actions undertaken and future ones to be undertaken in Italy, such as highlighted in the annual report submitted to Parliament, e Giorgia Dragoni, researcher of the Cybersecurity & Data Protection Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic who spoke about the state of the art of the sector in Italy.
In the speeches it was highlighted how the SMEs, which constitute the numerically largest slice of the market (95,05% of the total), are "fragile" subjects which often lack the skills and investment capacity in the sector. There Italian shopping for cybersecurity, on the other hand, it is still far from the sums invested by the other G7 nations even if in recent years, especially since the pandemic, more investments have begun to be made in the sector.
In 2022, the cyber attacks in Italy they reached a record value, registering the highest percentage of annual growth ever. Compared to 2021, attacks increased by 169% in our country, while globally the growth was 21%. According to Clusit 2023 report, cyber attacks in Italy accounted for 7,6% of the global total. Against this scenario, as noted by the Cybersecurity & Data Protection Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic, the value of the Italian cybersecurity market has recorded high growth rates: 15% and 18% respectively in 2021 and 2022.
Cybersecurity Made in Italy, the white paper of the Centro Studi Tim
The event was also an opportunity for Tim to present his White Paper titled “Cybersecurity Made in Italy”. According to report by the TIM Study Centre, cybersecurity market in Italy is living a significant growth, with a rate of average annual growth of 11-12% and an estimated value of approx € 2,5 billion by 2025. However, this sector is characterized by ahigh fragmentation, with over 3000 companies, half of which concentrated mainly in Lazio, Campania and Lombardy. Only the 10-15% of companies dedicated to cybersecurity services managed to successfully establish itself in the market, following a clear growth strategy. Among these, two alternative models prevail: on the one hand, there are companies that specialize in a single sector, such as banking services for example; on the other hand, there are companies that offer a wider range of services, acting as a “one stop shop”, and often have at least one proprietary technology. The latter model represents more than half of the companies examined, of which 75% have proprietary technology.
Despite the growth of the industry, much of the market is still polarized among large ICT groups, which also offer cybersecurity services, and small highly specialized companies, which are struggling to grow. The fragmentation of the Italian market is much more accentuated than in other large European countries. According to estimates by the TIM Study Centre, theItaly has 1,6 cybersecurity companies per billion of GDP, double the number of the United Kingdom (0,8 companies per billion of GDP) and even more than Spain (1,2 companies per billion of GDP).
The delay of Italian companies in the sector also derives from lack of skills necessary to counter IT risks. According to the report, 60% of Italian companies with more than 10 employees rely completely on external personnel for their cybersecurity needs. This percentage increases to 70% for companies with fewer than 50 employees.
