With NIS2, the Cyber Resilience Act and the planned reform of the EU Cybersecurity Act, a new phase is beginning for Europe’s digital economy: political requirements are being translated into concrete obligations, audits and liability risks. Requirements relating to risk management, reporting processes, certification, security by design and supply chain security are thus becoming strategic factors for investment, competitiveness and market access. It is crucial to create regulatory certainty without stifling innovation and growth.

High-level representatives from the European Commission, ENISA, the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), Deutsche Telekom and SAP will assess the transition from legislation to enforcement. The focus will be on regulatory overlaps, outstanding supervisory issues and the specific action required of companies. The session will demonstrate how cybersecurity is evolving from a compliance task into a prerequisite for trust, resilience and sustainable market success.

Europe’s ambitions in AI, the cloud and digital sovereignty stand or fall with high-performance, secure and scalable networks. Perspectives from the European Parliament, the fibre optic sector, mobile communications, Internet Exchanges and cloud technology will examine whether the Digital Networks Act can create better investment conditions, reduce regulatory fragmentation and strengthen Europe’s digital competitiveness.

The focus will be on how fibre optic, mobile communications, interconnection and cloud infrastructures need to evolve in order to reliably support AI-based services. At the same time, the discussion will address how responsibility for investment, resilience and competitiveness should be distributed within the European digital ecosystem in future – and what decisions need to be taken today to set the right course.

Digital sovereignty is also determined by physical infrastructure. AI applications, highly critical payment services and the migration to quantum-secure systems fundamentally increase the requirements for computing power, connectivity, availability and resilience. This brings the protection of critical workloads, the reduction of dependencies and the creation of robust redundancies into sharper focus.

Representatives from politics and Internet infrastructure will discuss how data centre hubs, regional sites, edge infrastructures and redundant fibre optic networks can be interconnected to form a resilient overall system. Topics will include physical single points of failure, concentration risks and energy and network availability – with the aim of keeping critical digital services available and controllable even under technological and geopolitical pressure.

Artificial intelligence is becoming a decisive factor for the cyber resilience of digital infrastructures: it enables earlier detection of threats, the analysis of complex attack patterns and faster responses to security incidents. At the same time, new attack surfaces, dependencies and systemic risks are emerging. The key challenge is therefore no longer whether AI should be used, but how it can be used securely, controllably and in compliance with regulatory requirements.

Experts from research, Internet infrastructure, operational cybersecurity and regulation will demonstrate how the potential of AI can be harnessed without compromising control and resilience. The focus will be on governance, risk management, secure automation and the requirements of the EU AI Act, NIS2 and the Cyber Resilience Act. The session will highlight the decisions that need to be taken now to ensure that AI enhances security rather than becoming a new business risk.

Email remains the backbone of digital business communication – and, at the same time, one of the main entry points for phishing, identity theft and business email compromise. Building on the BSI’s “Year of Email Security”, this session will demonstrate how the Technical Guidelines on email authentication and secure transport can be implemented effectively. SPF, DKIM, DMARC, DNSSEC, DANE, TLS and MTA-STS will be translated into a concrete operational action plan.

The focus will be on fragmented domain portfolios, unknown third-party senders, legacy systems, deliverability risks and unclear responsibilities. Practical examples will demonstrate how governance can be established, progress made measurable and secure email communication permanently embedded in the security architecture. Organisations’ own domains strengthen control over sender identities and their ability to act independently in the digital sphere. The session will conclude with a concrete 90-day action plan for implementation.

Phishing, malware, botnets and other cyberattacks exploit a complex interplay of domains, DNS services, hosting platforms and compromised systems. Detection alone is therefore not enough: what is needed is robust data, actionable intelligence, clear responsibilities and rapid collaboration between security teams, CERTs, registrars, registries, hosting providers and the international DNS community. A current situation report from the eco initiative topDNS shows how patterns of abuse, attack duration and countermeasures are evolving.

The discussion will trace the entire response chain, from the first security signal to the coordinated disruption of criminal infrastructure. The focus will be on verifying reports, legally compliant and effective interventions and cross-border escalation procedures. The session will demonstrate how DNS intelligence and collaboration at the infrastructure level can be systematically integrated into incident response, risk management and cyber resilience.