- María Jesús Almazor, from Telefónica Tech, on CSI Radar: “Essential to continue fighting against the bad guys”.
- 34% of the speakers were women.
- More than 300 professionals from 140 companies attended the International Cybersecurity Radar.
- 11 countries from Europe, Asia and America were represented.
The first edition of ‘CSI Radar’, held from June 12 to 16 at the Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones de Sevilla (FIBES) in both face-to-face and virtual formats, brought together hundreds of participants and companies from all over the world.
A total of 42 speakers, a third of whom were women, participated in 38 sessions. In terms of the number of visitors, media and participants, the figures reached a total of 322 professional participants, as well as 140 companies in the sector.
Women, leaders in the cybersecurity sector
In this first edition, the female protagonism related to the cybersecurity sector is particularly noteworthy. Thirty-four percent of the speakers who took part in ‘CSI Radar’ were women: María Jesús Almazor (Telefónica Tech), Isabel Tristán (IBM), Arancha Jiménez (Eviden), Lucía López (National Police), Rosalía Machín (Civil Guard), Marta Valcarce (Public Prosecutor’s Office), Eduvigis Ortiz (Women4Cyber), Encarni Iglesias (Asociación Stop! Digital Gender Violence Association), Eva Álvarez del Manzano (Edefa Group and Italtel), Aimed Pimentel, Nazly Borrero, Xohara Ayuso, Andréa Thomé (WOMCY) and María Medina (Medina Media Events).
The speaker of honor of this first edition, María Jesús Almazor, CEO of Cybersecurity and Cloud at Telefónica Tech, highlighted the CSI Radar as “a very interesting forum with very diverse participation and with cybersecurity approaches from different aspects. The truth is that these forums are essential to continue fighting against the bad guys”, adding that “it is a common forum where Public Administrations and private companies collaborate with each other with best practices, with knowledge transfer to provide solutions on cybersecurity because every day the speed is faster and we have to be able to fight with that speed”.
A total of 140 companies from 11 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas were represented: the United States, China, France, Italy, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Spain.
Of the 322 participants, the majority were CEOs, CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, cybersecurity specialists, innovation, business, product, strategy and marketing managers, as well as consultants and researchers.
The media did not want to miss this event, with the presence of El País, La Vanguardia, ABC, Cadena Ser, RNE, Agencia EFE, Diario de Sevilla, Canal Sur (radio and television), Revista Seguridad 360, Revista Ciberseguridad and Europa Press, among others.
A very global first edition
CSI Radar’ has crossed borders, with the support of multinationals from Europe, America and Asia. Technology giants from the USA, such as IBM, Proofpoint, Amazon Web Services and Tesla; from China, such as Huawei and ZTE; from France, such as Atos & Eviden; or from Spain, such as Telefónica Tech and Grupo Edefa. In addition, it was attended by Spanish associations, such as Cisoverso, AEVAC, Eurecat, Asociación Stop! Violencia de Género Digital; European associations, such as Women4CyberEuropean; and South American associations, including WOMCY.
It should be noted that attendees and sponsors of the event were also able to network with other companies and compare opinions with a wide range of experts. Pedro Álamo, from Proofpoint, affirms that this first edition “has been a meeting point for the main companies and public bodies, and a place where we can exchange experiences and networking that we can all take advantage of”.
The ‘Demo Zone’ did not go unnoticed among the participants either. AWS showed, for example, a data transport suitcase used in the invasion of Ukraine, which prevents Russian cyber-attacks on its banks and the Administration; ZTE also showed different cutting-edge practices carried out in the multinational’s laboratories; or Tesla, which has allowed testing several intelligent cars of the latest range in a closed driving circuit.
Agenda of professional and citizen interest
‘CSI Radar’ has had the privilege of being able to count on the first-hand testimonies of the State Security Forces and Corps, an essential piece in the whole framework of cybersecurity in our country. Commander Teodoro López Amador, Head of the Institutional Relations, Public Communication and Protocol Section of the Second Emergency Intervention Battalion of the UME, stated that “technologies are important but we must be aware of the capabilities provided by modern means, the risks and limitations”.
Enrique Pérez de Tena, Head of International Relations and Cooperation of the Joint Cyberspace Command – EMAD, was very categorical, stating that “a cyber-attack can paralyze a nation. We are constantly at war: we receive 2000 attacks a day”.
On the part of the Guardia Civil, several commanders specialized in the subject intervened. Firstly, Colonel Juan Salom Clotet, Head of the Cybersecurity Coordination Unit, who pointed out that “in 2025 we will have around 150,000 reports of Internet crimes in Spain“. Subsequently, José Luis Gómez, First Corporal, Head of the ‘@’ Team of the Seville Civil Guard Command, blamed “lack of training and information” as “main causes of cybercrime”. In addition, Rosalía Machín, Captain and ICT-IA Project Manager and Head of Department EU Funds of the General Subdirectorate of Information Systems and Communications for Security (SGSICS-SES) of the Ministry of the Interior, exposed the “increase in cybercrime from 20% to 46%“.
The National Police was also present, with Inspector José Girón, Head of the Seville Provincial Scientific Police Brigade, who highlighted “the size of the samples, hidden files or unknown software” as some of the major handicaps in the fight against cybercrime. On the other hand, Lucía López, Inspector of the Technological Crimes Group, stated that “with enough time nothing is unhackable”.
The vision of “the most vulnerable”.
CSI Radar also had Carlos San Juan, promoter of the campaign “I’m old, not an idiot”, who shared the concerns of the elderly: “We, the elderly, are bait for hackers“. Also Aitor Fernandez, Co-Founder and President of the Spanish Association of Connected Autonomous Vehicles (AEVAC), who is also blind, gave his point of view on the risks that any driver can have, who is vulnerable to autonomous driving and warned that currently: “many IoT devices are being launched without any security. For example vacuum cleaners, surveillance cameras or plugs, which collect information that makes us vulnerable. And in the end this is quite dangerous”.
For his part, Gabriel González, Deputy Prosecutor for Computer Crime of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, spoke about the most common cybercrimes currently present, many of which “are produced out of vanity, greed or laziness“.
Also, Luis Hidalgo, Head of Cabinet, Institutional Relations and Events of the National Institute of Cybersecurity (INCIBE), revealed that “in 2022, INCIBE managed 118,000 cybersecurity incidents“. Likewise, Juan Miguel Pulpillo, Coordinator of the Industrial Cybersecurity Center (CCI), stated that “60% of companies have not yet defined security measures”.
All ‘CSI Radar’ conferences can be followed throughout the year through ‘The Observatory’, a digital platform launched by Medina Media Events.
This first edition of ‘CSI Radar’ has been promoted by Telefónica Tech, Sevilla City Office and FIBES, and has the support of AWS, Proofpoint, Huawei, ZTE, IBM, Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo and ‘El Observatorio’.
