THEMES
The Cyber and Sovereignty and Digital Sovereignty Chair - IHEDN supports research, in particular by funding theses, the projects of which are submitted to the Steering Committee for selection.
Two thesis projects have been supported by the Chair:
Cybersecurity and service providers: Legal management of cyber risk in supply chains (2021-2025)
Élouan BUISSON, under the direction of Professor Michel SÉJEAN
Companies today inevitably need service providers to carry out their activities. It has become impossible for a company to carry out its activities without being part of a supply chain (« supply chain »). So, sooner or later, the company will have to call on a service provider to provide the following services cloud, or to a service provider with access to its systems, networks and data. The vulnerabilities of service providers increase the risk for the customer company. Various cyber attacks illustrate this phenomenon, such as the NotPetya case. In this case, the attackers went through the servers of a company producing accounting software that was widely distributed to businesses, in order to reach them. Companies that fall victim to these cyber attacks suffer a range of negative consequences. While the loss of business seems to be the most obvious, their reputation also suffers a shock. The attention of the victim company's customers and partners will focus much more on it than on its unknown subcontractor. Finally, there is a major legal risk for the victim company, due to the legal action that could be taken against it, for example in the event of a failure to adopt the security measures required for the processing of personal data. The thesis is therefore based on the legal management of cyber risk in supply chains. It will focus in particular on the situation of VSEs, SMEs and ETIs.
Cyberspace and the standardisation of digital geographic data: a challenge for French national sovereignty (2021-2024)
Rémi LE GENISSEL, under the supervision of Professor Philippe BOULANGER
The explosion in tools for producing, managing and exchanging geographic data since the advent of cyberspace at the end of the 90s has revolutionised the way we think about the areas in which this data can be used, and the possibilities it offers. France has great potential in this area, with a wealth of expertise in data acquisition, management and exploitation, thanks to the early institutionalisation of data-related issues (IGN and ONF in particular). Geographic data plays a vital role in many areas (environment, diplomacy, defence, administrative management) that fall directly under the authority of the State, which must ensure that it has control over the processes involved in producing, using and making data available, for the benefit of its sub-national and international exchanges. This thesis aims to analyse the impact of the development of cyberspace on French geopolitics, through the prism of the standardisation of sovereign digital data, in order to offer not only an analysis of the various processes of standardisation and dissemination of this data, but also innovations in this field, and France's place on the international stage. Finally, the aim is to analyse the extent to which the changes brought about by the development of the global digital environment and the standardisation of geographical data are leading to changes in French geopolitical thinking.