Tinexta and Leonardo have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on Industry 4.0 and data security projects for the country's manufacturing system. The partnership between Leonardo and Tinexta aims to provide the market with effective and comprehensive responses to reduce the risk of cyber attacks in the context of the digital transformation of public and private organisations.

According to a report by Swascan (Tinexta Group), Italy ranks fifth - after the US, Canada, France and the UK - among countries with published figures with regard to the number of companies falling victim to Ransomware attacks. The aim of the agreement between Leonardo and Tinexta is therefore to protect the Italian manufacturing sector from cyber threats, and in particular the sectors which, according to the report by Yoroi (Tinexta Group), have proved most vulnerable to attacks in the last year: manufacturing companies, financial services companies, the textile and fashion sector and utilities.

"The Memorandum was created with the intention of pooling the superior experience and most innovative solutions of two major Italian groups for the protection of millions of sensitive items of data and for the development and promotion of the concept of digital trust, which is essential for the legal validity of countless everyday digital transactions", said Pier Andrea Chevallard, Chief Executive Officer of Tinexta. "Guaranteeing the cyber security of our companies means ensuring their business continuity, protecting them from the very high cost of cyber crime in economic and image terms, and being able to embrace, with confidence, the digital transformation trend that is, and increasingly will be, a fundamental prerequisite for sustainable growth", added Tommaso Profeta, Managing Director of Leonardo's Cyber Security Division.

The agreement provides for the pooling of the Tinexta Cyber Business Unit's solutions with the activities and expertise of Leonardo's centre of excellence for cyber security and the Global Security Operation Centre in Chieti. Furthermore, Leonardo and Tinexta will integrate their respective vertical technology components in the areas of Internet of Things (IoT), Operational Technology (OT), Digital Trust, distributed digital identity based on BlockChain, Digital Onboarding and remote recognition, into complete solutions for the monitoring of critical national infrastructures.

It will thus be possible to ensure the legal value of transactions in all processes involving the use of such technologies and entire processes may be enabled in a natively digital mode, guaranteed by InfoCert (Tinexta Group), a European Trust Service Provider. The partnership will be directed by a Joint Steering Committee, in which the top management of the two companies will participate, which will determine the strategic direction of programmes and projects, and a Management Committee that will identify and manage individual initiatives.