We were eagerly anticipating for the first 100% virtual Luxembourg Internet Days event, and now it’s officially over. As usual, LU-CIX (Luxembourg Commercial Internet Exchange) worked hard to put on an informative, enjoyable event, packed with tons of insider information about the tech industry. Even though COVID-19 presented unprecedented restrictions, more than 1,000 professionals from Luxembourg and all over the world participated in the Luxembourg Internet Days event this year. At this point, you’re either hyped for the highlights or you’re confused about why the Luxembourg Internet Days event was so well attended, even in a pandemic. If you’re just here for the highlights, feel free to skip the next paragraph. But if you wouldn’t mind the crash course on Luxembourg Internet Days, here you go:

What’s Luxembourg Internet Days?

Luxembourg Internet Days is a Luxembourg-based internet conference that’s held every November. This year’s event happened from November 17th to 19th and, because of global travel and safety concerns surrounding COVID-19, this year’s conference was held online.

This year’s themes

The main themes this year were network security, cloud security, and how to manage and withstand a crisis. Because of COVID-19, many people find themselves working remotely for the first time, which means they’re conducting company business on their home networks. Companies have also been scrambling to conduct top-secret meetings over videoconferencing platforms that have a history of breaches, because they had no time to set up an alternative infrastructure. That’s because some companies still don’t have their own web hosting, even though there are great hosting packages that have been specifically designed for businesses. That’s why this year’s speakers presented valuable information on how to navigate data security during this especially dangerous time.

The Prime Minister’s Speech at Luxembourg Internet Days 2020

This year, Prime Minister Bettel’s Day 1 speech highlighted the importance of digital network security under the unusual restrictions we face during COVID-19. We also heard from guests who spoke on behalf of the EU, so as usual, the Luxembourg Internet Days conference was well attended by some of the most prominent decision-makers in Europe. Speaking of prominent decision-makers…

Marc Hansen’s speech at Luxembourg Internet Days 2020

Marc Hansen, Minister Delegate for Digitization, gave a speech in which he highlighted the way our response to the novel coronavirus proves the resilience of our society and our tremendous ability to adapt. He also emphasized the importance of making our society more digital:

“The coronavirus pandemic has forced us to find new ways of working and interacting. This crisis has underlined the urgency to act and accelerate the digital transformation of our society.”

In his speech, he also highlighted the massive strides we’ve been able to make because of the increasingly digital nature of our society. He said that because of incorporating digital solutions in communications and other essential services, we’ve managed to maintain public services and give citizens the opportunity to carry out even more administrative procedures online. He also mentioned some exciting initiatives by the Ministry of Digitization, which we’ll hear more about in the coming months. These initiatives are focused on the collection of ideas, skills, technological innovations and external contributions, so that we can increase the already impressive rate at which we’re innovating in Luxembourg. One of these initiatives is the GovTech Lab, which is a joint program of the Ministry of Digitization and its technological extension, the Technology Center. (Expect to hear more about GovTech in the coming weeks.) Although the Prime Minister’s and Minister of Digitization’s speeches were certainly well anticipated, they weren’t the only parts of the events that made attending worth it.

Other info-packed presentations at Luxembourg Internet Days 2020

We were treated to a gripping presentation from Alexandre Dulaunoy on the topic: How Threat Intelligence and Information Sharing Can Save You from the Recent Cyber Attacks. And we hope you also got to listen to Bart Asnot’s presentation on Cybersecurity in the Face of a Pandemic: And you were also in for a treat if you listened to Laurent Allard’s presentation: Public Cloud Adoption: Hype or Reality?

How to keep your data safe

If learning about potential malware injections makes you nervous, the first thing you need to know is that hackers aren’t invincible. They can’t destroy your data if it’s adequately protected. And the best way to keep your data safe is to protect it at its source. That means choosing high-quality web hosting and backing up your data frequently so that even if it is corrupted, you have a clean version of your data ready to be deployed. Every day, we help thousands of website owners keep their data secure. Check out Luxhosting.com to learn more about how we can help you create a hacker-proof website!

Wrapping up

As expected, LU-CIX did an amazing job making Luxembourg Internet Days informative and worth the time investment. If you missed it, we hope you enjoyed these highlights and that you get to make it next year!