Digital sobriety: how cyber security can play its part

At a time when the ecological transition is forcing us to rethink our digital habits, sobriety is becoming imperative. Bucking the trend, cybersecurity systems are based on increasingly heavy architectures: multiple logs, redundant infrastructure, intensive encryption, real-time monitoring, long-term storage, etc. While these practices are essential to ensuring system security, they also generate a growing environmental footprint that is often overlooked in digital sobriety assessments. So how can we reconcile digital security with the demand for sobriety? Is it possible to secure systems in other ways, with less complexity, less data and a smaller footprint? Event log reduction and intelligent governance, selective encryption, Zero Trust and Edge computing architectures, security data retention periods, and the sharing of cyber tools at sectoral or regional level: what approaches can reduce environmental impact without exposing organisations to risk?