THALES : and NASK S.A. in the fight for the security of critical infrastructure

Global technology leader Thales and NASK S.A. have signed a letter of intent on cooperation in the area of cybersecurity. The entities undertook to implement projects for the needs of state security authorities, protection of critical infrastructure and industrial automation systems. The main objective of the cooperation will be to provide protection for Polish entities in the energy, oil and gas, pharmaceutical and transport sectors, implementing obligations under the Act on National Cyber Security System and the European NIS Directive.

Poland, like the entire European Union, takes measures to ensure society's access to basic goods and services such as uninterrupted electricity supply, water supply, safe public transport, etc. Ensuring protection of key sectors of the economy, and consequently citizens and business entities is the goal for experts from NASK S.A. and THALES.

"Thales is a European leader in cyber security, operating in the market for many years, delivering major cyber projects for global corporations, governments, European institutions and NATO structures. We provide, among others, Security Operation Centers services from five locations in Europe, North America and Asia. We employ over 2000 information security engineers. We secure banking transactions, ensure safe civil and military communications, protect the most important facilities for the economy (including airports and seaports, command centres, aviation infrastructure management centres). Thales solutions use, among others, proprietary technologies for digital identity, biometrics, data encryption or threat identification in the digital and physical domains. We believe that using our joint experience, together with NASK S.A., we will meet the challenge of effective protection of installations and critical systems against the intrusion of the largest adversaries." - says Magdalena Nizik, President of Thales Polska.

"On the list of priorities in the area of our country's security, cybersecurity comes first. By implementing, among others, the assumptions of the National Cyber Security Policy Framework we ensure a high level of security in organisations and companies, including those in the public sector. For years we have been operating at the interface between the worlds of science and business. We have analytical and R&D resources, and with Thales we have an ideal opportunity to use our experience and skills in the area of cyber security, both on the sectoral and national level". - says Robert Baranowski, acting President of the Management Board of NASK S.A.

Thales and NASK S.A. strive to establish a partnership to effectively leverage their technical, economic, human resources and unique competencies. They want to achieve common goals by combining their experience in services provided for, inter alia, public order and security authorities, state security and the security of critical infrastructure units.

In this partnership, Thales will offer its innovative solutions and technologies based on digital identity, biometrics, data protection or digital security (data processing or network management systems and real-time decisions support).

NASK will provide analytical and R&D facilities and will use its experience in the area of cyber security in the industry and at the national level.

"Cyber attacks with an international dimension leave no illusions. Even specialized, extremely complex and automated production systems are exposed to more and more daring and extremely dangerous actions of hacking groups. Examples include cyber-attacks on the Ukrainian energy system in 2015 (western Ukraine) and again in 2016 (Kiev), an attack on a pipeline in the US in 2021 that caused fuel shortages at gas stations in much of the US, numerous attacks on water treatment systems (including in 2020 in Israel, repeatedly in the US, the latest in 2021), an attack on the world's largest container shipping operator in 2017, and many others. Such events show how important the topic of cyber security is, and that security failures can have disastrous social and economic consequences. Thales ambitions to be the Trusted partner of Poland in cybersecurity delivering the customized solutions key to ensure the country's sovereignty." - comments Andrzej Bartosiewicz, Sales Director at Thales Poland.

"Cyber attacks mostly concern IT infrastructure, but we have an increasing number of requests for solutions to protect industrial automation from external attacks. We are prepared to propose such solutions to our customers and offer a comprehensive approach to the issue of cyber security in the enterprise. The projects implemented by THALES Polska and NASK S.A. have a chance to improve the security of companies and organisations in decisive and critical moments" - concludes Piotr Jagielski, Head of Business Development Department at NASK S.A.

About Thales

Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global high-tech leader that invests in digital innovation and "deep tech" - connectivity, big data, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and quantum computers - to build a secure future for the development of societies. The Group provides its customers (companies, organisations and governments) in the field of defence, aeronautics, space, transport, digital identity and security - with solutions, services and products that help them fulfil their critical role.

Thales employs 81,000 people in 68 countries. In 2020, the Group generated sales of €17 billion.

About NASK S.A.

NASK S.A.'s mission is to support customer development by ensuring data security in the digital world.

NASK S.A. is an integrator of telecommunications services, established by NASK National Research Institute in 2017, in order to commercialise scientific and research works of NASK NRI. The company primarily provides telecommunications services, and its offerings include cyber security, internet access, telephony and corporate networking services, data centre services such as colocation, hosting of physical servers, and a cloud computing solution offered from a public or private cloud. Representatives of the company point out to a steadily growing number of customers for all the core services it provides - Internet access, telephony, cyber security, virtual hosting and other data centre services.

In 2017. NASK S.A. also successfully entered the market of integrator services and included in its offer new specialised security services (e.g. NSOC - Security Operations Center services) for various types of networks. The company also introduced industrial network (OT) security services.

From a strategic point of view, the company focuses on 3 product groups: Cyber Security, Data Centre / Cloud and Telco.