Europe is clearly in the crosshairs. These attacks are no longer just website hacks. They are increasingly sophisticated, targeting critical infrastructure, shutting down hospitals, and paralyzing commercial ports.
Hugues Foulon, CEO of Orange Cyberdefense, explains that responding to these threats can’t be a one-sided effort. Cybersecurity is a “team sport” that requires institutions, businesses, and individuals to work together on a transnational scale, combining resources, skills, and vigilance.
Cyber threats are growing in power and creativity. Malicious groups combine technical attacks with psychological manipulation to undermine public trust. Their strength is amplified by access to significant resources, including support from state actors or well-funded groups. Critical sectors are often the target.
According to the Security Navigator 2025 report, 46% of attacks on OT (operational technology) systems result in control over industrial production sites. With more interconnected systems, the number of components that need end-to-end security has multiplied. The consequences are all too real: hospitals impacted in Romania, Spain, or Belgium, disrupted rail traffic across multiple countries. Digital trust is also under pressure from disinformation campaigns, threats to personal data, election manipulation, and attacks on institutions. Effective solutions are essential.
Protecting networks and services isn’t enough. Sovereign data hosting and control over data in transit are critical, along with compliance with international regulations. Dependence on major U.S. tech companies also poses a challenge, as they may have to enforce U.S. law outside their own jurisdiction.
For some of our clients, digital sovereignty is about reducing reliance on non-European actors and ensuring they are not subject to external decisions. Orange Business gives companies a choice of trusted solutions that let them innovate while maintaining competitiveness and autonomy.
This is the idea behind our Cloud Avenue platforms, designed to meet security and sovereignty requirements for some clients.
With data centers in France, Germany, Sweden, and Norway, this hosting suite meets the strictest European standards for security, data control, and compliance with regulations like GDPR. In July 2025, our Cloud Avenue SecNum platform, deployed at our Grenoble data center, achieved the highest security certification awarded by ANSSI: the “SecNumCloud” qualification for both shared and dedicated IaaS environments. Operated exclusively by our French teams, it features data encryption, fine-grained key management, network environment segregation, and strict access control.
Responsible AI for a sovereign digital future
Generative AI brings new challenges. Orange collaborates with multiple AI model providers and signed a partnership with Mistral AI in February 2025. The goal is to offer their solutions, including the assistant “Le Chat,” to Orange France clients while combining research and innovation capabilities.
The combination of European networks and AI ensures faster, more reliable infrastructure and intelligent systems that optimize performance. Live Intelligence, our Orange Business offering, secures the growing use of generative AI in companies.
This approach “will support widespread adoption of AI and unlock its full potential through high-performance networks adapted to real-time conversations.
Responsible AI for a sovereign digital future
This approach “will support widespread adoption of AI and unlock its full potential through high-performance networks adapted to real-time conversations.
Generative AI brings new challenges. Orange collaborates with multiple AI model providers and signed a partnership with Mistral AI in February 2025. The goal is to offer their solutions, including the assistant “Le Chat,” to Orange France clients while combining research and innovation capabilities. The combination of European networks and AI ensures faster, more reliable infrastructure and intelligent systems that optimize performance. Live Intelligence, our Orange Business offering, secures the growing use of generative AI in companies.
Orange has always worked to strengthen global connectivity. Security is integrated into the design of our infrastructure, automatically detecting and correcting vulnerabilities while maintaining resilient systems. Disaggregated network functions make updates fast and easy. New software tools allow continuous updates, keeping applications secure at every step.
SMEs, often on the front line but with limited resources, can rely on Orange Cyberdefense’s Micro-SOC solution: a digital watchdog combining human and technological expertise, offered at an accessible cost, capable of detecting and stopping threats.
Large companies and public institutions benefit from more comprehensive solutions: audits, incident response, crisis management, and business continuity.
Innovation fuels this arsenal, with tools like ThreatNet, which continuously monitors Orange’s internal network to anticipate attacks and protect IT network integrity
