Telefónica Tech and the Spanish Association for Quality (in Spanish, Asociación Española para la Calidad -AEC-) have announced today the creation of the ‘CISO Club’, a space that will serve as a meeting point for cybersecurity professionals to find solutions and answers to their day-to-day issues through cooperation and knowledge exchange.

The presentation ceremony of the ‘CISO Club’ was held in Espacio Fundación Telefónica and was opened by María Jesús Almazor, COO of Telefónica Tech for Spain and America, Avelino Brito, managing director of AEC, and Leonardo Cervera, Secretary General of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS).

Alberto González, director of IT operations and manager of the AEC DPD Club, and Óscar Bou, head of the consultancy business of Govertis Part of Telefónica Tech, were in charge of conducting the meeting. In addition to other spokespersons from Telefónica Tech and Telefónica de España, numerous representatives from companies and institutions such as the National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE), ISACA, the National Cryptologic Centre (CCN), the Centre for Information Systems and Technologies (CESTIC) of the Ministry of Defence, the Centre for Industrial Cybersecurity (CCI), Continuam, BBVA, Renfe, Redeia, Naturgy, the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and Women4Cyber took part in the event.

The ‘CISO Club’ was created with the commitment to centralise all the information and knowledge needs of CISOs and cybersecurity managers in the public and private sectors (national and international), and to serve as a guide for anyone interested in this specialisation, especially young people with higher education and university degrees or professionals seeking to orientate or reorientate their professional career towards the world of cybersecurity.

The ‘CISO Club’ of Telefónica Tech and the AEC will be a space to discuss issues affecting cybersecurity, share experiences within a global community of experts and keep up to date with the latest alerts, news, reports and technical articles on this subject. It will also be a vehicle to promote capacity building, training and awareness through specialised courses.

María Jesús Almazor, COO of Telefónica Tech for Spain and the Americas, said during the inauguration that “the creation of the ‘CISO Club’ is an initiative aimed at joining forces, encouraging the sharing of knowledge between companies and institutions in order to offer a better service to customers, and promoting a society that is better trained, educated and aware of cybersecurity from an early age”.

Avelino Brito, managing director of AEC, pointed out that “new technologies imply new risks, which have to be dealt with through new management practices and new skills in professionals. These new practices and capabilities are part of quality organisations”.

In its firm commitment to protect companies and institutions, Telefónica Tech currently has a team of 2,000 professionals dedicated to providing cybersecurity services and has a digital operations centre (DOC), which operates from Madrid and Bogotá, and 11 security operations centres (SOC) spread throughout Europe and America to monitor and supervise the security of global customers during extended hours (24×7).

The technology company already has extensive experience in sharing cybersecurity information with other players in the sector. Telefónica Tech is a member of the National SOC Network, an initiative in Spain and a pioneer in Europe, in which it contributes its knowledge of threats so that other organisations can benefit from it and check whether they are affected or should take any additional measures to strengthen their security.

Govertis Part of Telefónica Tech also offers advice and training in cybersecurity areas such as industrial, financial and cloud environments, as well as in advanced technologies such as big data, fastdata or IoT; as well as accompaniment and support for the corporate CISO function.