Eric Bothorel, Député - A Cyber Hero by CaptainCyber

Who are you?

Hello, I am Eric Bothorel, Member of Parliament La République en marche and Vice President of the Study Group on Cybersecurity and also President of the Study Group on the Data and Knowledge Economy.

Do you have a "political" definition of cybersecurity?

Cyber is an immaterial space that is not as immaterial as all that - because cybersecurity issues can also concern submarine cables, which are very physical - but it is a place of global interconnection on which 0s and 1s pass through.

Cyber, it's just everywhere now.

What is being done concretely at the National Assembly in terms of cyber?

For example, we are getting phones that allow us to travel abroad, which are not the phones on which the National Assembly's data is hosted. In any case, we encourage parliamentarians to do so. We use data blockers that allow us, when we want to connect our device to a USB socket, to be sure that only current is passing through and not that information is being captured. So there is, at the same time, an awareness of parliamentarians because they are part of the targets for economic intelligence. But at the same time, we legislate for the good of the country.

The strength of a chain is that of its weakest link. And often, the human factor is important. The strength of a chain is its weakest link. Because at the same time, at the same time that we are making progress in trying to replace the threats we know about, other new ones are arriving, and in the future we will probably have to imagine either practices or tools that are still a little different and that will allow us to guarantee the security of our exchanges and our information.

Is cybersecurity a real priority for the Macron five-year term?

No, clearly we want to devote the necessary resources to face the world of tomorrow. And the Cyber Campus strategy, just like the strategy around the renewed sovereign cloud with the three-circle strategy, is part of both the awareness and the will, I was going to say, to make the best effort in this area to remain at the forefront of cybersecurity.

The French believe they are aware of cyber issues but continue to engage in dangerous practices. Why?

Take a subcontractor, an architect who makes the plans of an airport, for example, or the one who makes the electrical diagram of a power plant. It is part of a long process and a capacity for those who would like to harm, destabilize the economy, capture information. It is one more loophole. I am not convinced today that we are at the top of our game in terms of our ability to raise awareness.

Any cyber advice for your citizens?

Be paranoid, not too much, but never be totally naive.

Do you talk about it with your family?

I won't go into detail about the devices that exist in my home today, but everyone is aware.