Amsterdam— The organisers of the RSA® Conference Europe announced the winners of the inaugural European Information Security Awards at the opening of its annual Conference being held at the RAI Congress Centre in Amsterdam.
The European Information Security Awards, supported by the European Commission, have been introduced to the RSA Conference Europe programme as a way of recognising and rewarding significant initiatives and achievements in the field of information security across Europe. For 2003 the three awards categories were: Academic Research, Implementation and European Policy.
Before a packed auditorium of around 1000 delegates, security experts and guest speakers, Art Coviello, CEO of RSA Security, was joined on stage by Prof. Dr Kai Rannenberg from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt – a member of the Awards’ independent selection committee – to present the winners with their trophies.
Art Coviello, said: “The choice of awards categories reflects upon our commitment to attract entries from a wide range of European security initiatives and to identify and promote key achievements. We have been absolutely delighted with the response the programme has had this year, both in terms of the number of entries we have received and the quality of these entries.”
The European Information Security Awards 2003 Winners:
Prof. Dr Kai Rannenberg said: “This programme represents a great opportunity for the security industry to honour significant projects with the recognition they deserve for enhancing the quality of information security. It has been a privilege to have been a part of the Awards selection committee and I look forward to continuing my support for the programme in the future. Evaluating the entries has not been easy and I offer my congratulations to this year’s winners and finalists.”
Receiving the Implementation award on stage for CDC-Mercure was Etienne Combet, Chief Operating Officer. He said “I am delighted to receive this award on behalf of Caisse des Depots et Consignations. This achievement is reward for over two years of research and development effort as we have worked towards our goal of establishing a secure online infrastructure for e-government applications. Next year will see the beginning of a full-scale deployment of FAST through a venture created with our public and private European partners.”
Harri Pursiainen, Director-General of the Finnish Ministry of Communications received the European Policy Award on stage and delivered the following acceptance speech: “I wish to thank the organisers of the European Information Security Awards for arranging such a competition. It is an excellent way to generate ideas on how to develop the various sectors of information security and how to increase public awareness of the matter. Moreover, the competition gave us Finns a pleasant opportunity to tell you what we aim to do to promote the European information society development. We wish the very best to the Conference, its organisers and the European information security work in general. The work continues at all levels.”
Concluding the presentation Mr Coviello, said: “On behalf of RSA Conferences, the European Commission, and also personally, I’d like to congratulate the finalists and thank those individuals and organisations who have supported the programme in its first year. Special thanks go out to the members of the independent review board who have faced a challenging task and delivered considerable value to the Awards. And finally to the three winners, who deserve their awards for embracing the challenge and striving to make the Internet a safer, more secure place to be.”
For more information about the European Information Security Awards and to view the winning project summaries please visit www.rsaconference.com/europe_awards or contact Matt Buckley at RSA Security on +44 (0)1344 781000 or mbuckley@rsasecurity.com
About the RSA Conference
Now in its 4th year, the RSA® Conference - Europe brings together decision-makers and influencers from all major markets, including consumer, education, financial, government, computer networking, telecommunications, finance and media for one of the industry’s premier information security events. The RSA Conference continues in San Francisco (February 2004) and Tokyo (June 2004). For more information, visit www.rsaconference.com
