Luxembourg Internet Days Gets Underway at Chamber of Commerce

On Tuesday 19 November 2024, the 11th edition of Luxembourg Internet Days got underway at the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg-Kirchberg.

The main topics for the two-day conference, organised by the Luxembourg Internet Exchange (LU-CIX ASBL), are connectivity, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and IT resilience. Romania is the partner country for this year’s event.

The Tuesday morning session in the main conference room was well attended, with standing room only.

The  welcome address was given by LU-CIX ASBL Chairman, Claude Demuth. Mr Demuth extended a welcome to the four Luxembourg government ministers due to attend the event: Elisabeth Margue, Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister for Media and Connectivity, Lex Delles, Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism, Léon Gloden, Minister for Home Affairs, and Stéphanie Obertin, Minister for Digitalisation, as well as to the Romanian Ambassador to Luxembourg, Alexandrina-Livia Rusu, and to Dan Cimpean, Director of the Romanian National Cyber Security Directorate, among others.

Mr Demuth spoke of the topics of this year’s conference. He explained that without connectivity there could be no internet and therefore this topic is at the forefront of the event. Threats and security are also relevant these days, while the topic of resilience deals with infrastructure: without infrastructure there can be no access to content and applications. He mentioned there were many keynote addresses, case studies and workshops taking place over the course of the two-day event.

An official address from Ambassador Alexandrina-Livia Rusu followed, in which she thanked LU-CIX ASBL for inviting Romania as partners to this year’s event. She spoke of the Luxembourg economic mission to Romania earlier this year and the ongoing dialogue between the two nations. She described cybersecurity as being a major priority for her country and of how technology should always benefit the people. Unfortunately, technology is being misused as a method of economic and social oppression by malicious actors. According to the Ambassador, it is essential to boost resilience to prevent and deter attacks and to act quickly and actively when attacks occur. She reported that the cost of cybercrime globally is expected to reach $24 trillion by 2027, up from $8.5 trillion in 2022. She also spoke of digital technology being a great innovation, but how it also brings dangers. She concluded by saying that cybersecurity is essential and can be achieved with a whole of society approach.

Elisabeth Cardoso, Luxembourg’s Ambassador to Romania, spoke at the conference via video link and described how Luxembourg and Romania both have a strong and dynamic internet and cybersecurity systems. Good cooperation between the countries allows them to combine their talent and knowledge. Technological progress moves fast and touches every aspect of our lives, including private and economic activities. She described Luxembourg as a dynamic hub in the centre of Europe, open to international cooperation. She added that collaboration between countries is necessary for businesses to strive and to ensure safety in the future.

Minister Elisabeth Margue spoke of the importance of the conference for Luxembourg. She congratulated the organisers for the well-chosen and relevant themes. She noted that quantum communications bring new challenges, especially in the geopolitical context where secure data is becoming more and more important. On the topic of connectivity, Minister Margue reported that Luxembourg has a connectivity of 95% in houses throughout the country, with most businesses having access to fibre optics. The remaining unconnected areas are in rural areas and harder to reach. Work is being done to address this issue by introducing a draft law addressing planning procedures and partnership between the local authorities and network coordinators.

The minister also addressed DDoS, mentioning the large-scale attack Luxembourg suffered in March 2024. She spoke of the continued battle to ensure cybersecurity, including expanding the use of LuxChat. Citizens and businesses must also raise their awareness of threats and remain vigilant in their day to day lives. She added that resilience brings together infrastructure, security and market readiness, with Luxembourg performing well in these areas, and she described LU-CIX as being particularly important in this area.

Minister Margue then announced the government’s decision to renew and raise the financial support for LU-CIX, leading to a new agreement being signed between the minister and Claude Demuth, to enable the company to continue its important role in securing the safety of the internet sector.

Carlo Thelen, Director General of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, then addressed the audience. He stressed that as digitalisation increases so too do cyberthreats. Companies and businesses in Luxembourg were targeted on average 1,500 times per week in the third quarter of 2024. This represents an increase of 80% from the same period last year. The financial and banking sector are the most targeted. Security practices are necessary to build resilient systems. Luxembourg is regarded as being in the top tier in terms of its security performance. The Luxembourg cybersecurity system has over 350 members and has been steadily growing, The House of Cybersecurity and the House of Entrepreneurship offer workshops to new businesses and startups to foster an understanding of the threats posed and counteractive measures that can be taken. Artificial intelligence (AI) brings numerous productivity gains but also brings the potential for misuse. Identifying threats and enhancing resilience is necessary, Mr Thelen added. 

Luxembourg Internet Days will continue on Wednesday 20 November 2024. For more information (including the programme), visit https://www.luxembourg-internet-days.com/. 

The 2025 edition of Luxembourg Internet Days will take place on Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 November 2025.