Scientific standing – the key roles of expertise

This expertise meets a number of important requirements Foremost among these is to provide the Agency with in-depth knowledge of cutting-edge scientific progress, which is vital both in order to advise ANSSI interlocutors and to analyse the threat and determine the nature of new vulnerabilities.
There is also a need to anticipate as far as possible significant new trends in the state-of-the-art, in order to adapt ANSSI standards at the earliest possible stage and undertake the work required in order to incorporate these developments.
Finally, ANSSI uses its expertise in its training activities.

To maintain this expertise and develop it in emerging fields, ANSSI’s technical teams devote a significant part of their activity to technological monitoring and research within their field of expertise. In addition to simply keeping abreast of current scientific developments, for example by participating in the relevant scientific conferences, ANSSI agents, and particularly those from the various laboratories that make up the Scientific and Technical Division, actively participate in research activities within their field of expertise. Such research may be conducted both internally and jointly with research teams from outside the agency, potentially within the framework of joint, national or European research projects. These regularly give rise to scientific publications, and even the creation of prototypes or reference implementations, some of which may be published as freeware. They may also lead to some agents to formally validate their expertise by defending a doctorate thesis or serve as a framework for the work of interns or PhD-level researchers.

Finally, primarily through this scientific expertise, ANSSI undertakes long-term joint projects with its partners for the in-depth monitoring of particular priorities, establishing good practices which are the result of a consensus between the various experts in the field. The French Internet Resilience Observatory is an example of such a partnership.