Cyber Campus Euromed: A new cybersecurity hub in Marseille

Amid growing worldwide cyber threats, a dedicated cybersecurity facility initiated by the Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region will officially open its doors in Marseille on October 22, 2024. Located in the Tour Mirabeau, the Euromed Cyber Campus will be a genuine catalyst for economic development and security cooperation at a local, national, and Euro-Mediterranean level. This new campus, which is part of a national network supported by the French government and the ANSSI national agency for the security of information systems, will be a powerful tool as Provence Promotion seeks to attract a range of new companies to the Aix-Marseille territory.

France has been making cybersecurity a top priority over the past few years. On the heels of the success of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where the cybersecurity challenge was successfully met at all the venues, including the two in Marseille, the goal now is to boost the level of protection for the country’s entire economic fabric. This approach means the widespread adoption of the type of cyberdefence measures that are taken by the most critical infrastructure sites and important companies. The increasing number of cyber-attacks and data leaks affecting leading French retailers such as Boulanger, Cultura, Bayard, and Truffaut has unfortunately illustrated the amount of work still to be done in this domain.

Following the campuses that opened in Lille, Bordeaux, and Caen between 2023 and 2024, the Euromed Cyber Campus is the fourth regional facility under a national project launched by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2021. These regional cyber campuses are part of a strategy to decentralise cybersecurity operations, and there is a parallel operation to create regional Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) that work as closely as possible with local territories.

With cybersecurity being such an overreaching concern, public-sector institutions (the Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region, Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis) and private-sector companies (CEPAC, CMA-CGM, FDJ, Unitel, Marseille-Provence Airport) came together to support the Marseille campus to meet three key objectives:

• Increase the level of cyber security in the Aix-Marseille area and among local stakeholders;
• Unite and accelerate the cybersecurity ecosystem;
• Raise the profile of the sector and its professions to attract talent and provide the territory with the required pool of expertise, in particular through education initiatives.

As a resource centre, the Marseille site will offer private or shared offices, meeting and event spaces, a technology showroom, crisis management rooms, and technical infrastructure that can be deployed on a shared basis for the benefit of organisations and companies of all sizes.

The Euromed Cyber Campus, at the heart of a dynamic ecosystem

The 2000-square-metre Marseille campus is based in the Euromediterrnée business district, where it looks out over the sea from its space in the iconic Tour Mirabeau. It will be home to experts, companies, students, public bodies, and international delegations. The campus has an ideal location because it is in close proximity to the metro area’s main internet connectivity and data centre infrastructure, which make Aix-Marseille-Provence the world’s 7th-largest hub for submarine cables and Europe’s 5th-largest hub for data centres. It will also benefit from the dynamic nature of the fast-growing Euroméditerranée international business district, which has a high concentration of businesses and a growing number of students taking advanced courses in crucial technologies.

A catalyst for innovation and a driver of economic appeal

The new cyber campus is open to all the territory’s economic stakeholders and will be a significant asset for Provence Promotion as it works to attract new projects to the metro area. Companies specialising in cybersecurity will be an initial target, as will any technological, services, or industrial company with cybersecurity needs that are central to their digital transformation strategy.

By bringing together specialist service providers, creators of security solutions and technologies, training and research organisations, young talent, major manufacturers, and leading companies based in the Aix-Marseille territory, an entire cyber security ecosystem will blossom that will improve the competitiveness and attractiveness of the local economy. “The mission of the Euromed Cyber Campus is to contribute to the performance, confidence, resilience, and inclusiveness of digital technology in the territory and for the benefit of the territory,” says Clément Rossi, the General Delegate of the Euromed Cyber Campus.

The campus will also be a soft landing spot for international delegations and companies in the cyber security sector, particularly those from the Mediterranean basin and Africa. This will further raise Aix-Marseille’s global profile in this essential and fast-growing market.

To mark the inauguration, Provence Promotion is organising a special media tour in collaboration with the Euromed Cyber Campus so journalists can discover the cybersecurity assets and advantages of the Aix-Marseille-Provence metro area.