Adaptability means having access to a range of behaviours that allow leaders to change and experiment as things evolve. And, more singularly, to any human being who wants to take charge of his or her life. “Successful leaders must avoid relying too heavily on market assumptions and be quick, agile and unafraid to adapt on the fly. Fearlessness and change management are essential for today’s business leaders,” adds the executive.

Becoming A Successful Leader

For Benoit, every person—leader or manager—who put their trust in him and assisted him in developing his technical and soft skills is an inspiration. “People around me realized the extent to which putting me on repetitive assignments was going to deprive them of a large part of my abilities and they helped me gain so much more. It’s an opportunity to have superiors on your career path who see your potential without seeing it as a threat,” explains Benoit. “When a superior or a colleague devotes time to your work and then entrusts you with other assignments, it helps you to grow and encourages a virtuous circle leading to success.”

Benoit states that success can be seen as external recognition and an inside satisfaction. From the first perspective, it had already started with a smooth establishment of the Agency, with external certifications demonstrating the effectiveness of implemented governance organizational and technical processes. Every year, INCERT has successfully achieved some complex projects, increasing their level of competence and the trust put by clients in the Agency.

“Good team spirit is a key factor in achieving results. Knowing how to delegate is also fundamental, as is the ability to challenge oneself. A word of advice from the second perspective, take a moment for yourself at least once a day. It can be doing sport and enjoying a simple moment,” elucidates Benoit. “For an example, I like my breakfast time which offers me a moment of inner peace and tranquility. When it’s over, I know that anything can happen, and at great speed. For me, this moment allows me to better manage the tumult of certain days.” Benoit is also very curious by nature. He finds that this ability to open up to environments that are not primarily his own has helped him in his personal and professional development. As an anecdote, Benoit created a cocktail in the image of INCERT after taking a course with a mixologist. It was tasted at the agency’s 10th anniversary party. All the team survived ;).

Building A Terrific Agency

In 2012, the State of Luxembourg and the Chamber of Commerce decided to provide the country with an Economic Interest Group to set up sensitive IT infrastructures and secure and verify the digital signatures into the national identity documents. INCERT was born with a pool of experts in cryptography and cybersecurity.

Ten years later, INCERT runs business projects on four continents, dealing with public authorities, major international companies, and organizations. With a never-ending objective to create assets for securing the digital society, they now offer a whole ecosystem of services and solutions providing long-term answers to moving challenges. 

With their highly skilled team of security professionals and management organization, they established long-lasting relationships with public and private stakeholders throughout the years, helping them to protect and ensure the authenticity of information.

INCERT acts as a “National ID issuer” for Luxembourg and Belgium by providing tobacco manufacturers with unique IDs for packets produced or sold within these countries. It allows them better traceability for these products and helps combat tobacco trafficking by offering the capability to track them.

For A Secure Future

As the number of connected cars is rapidly increasing and cars are gradually turning into digital devices, one can see why the landscape of risks is constantly growing. Thus, a top priority for car manufacturers is to secure the data processing and software updates throughout the whole lifetime of cars. Many cybersecurity solutions apply cryptographic methods and require careful and secure management of cryptographic keys. Under these terms, the two stakeholders proceeded to a long-term agreement in which INCERT provides high expertise in critical infrastructures and strategic software development. Specifically, the Key Management System (KMS) designed by INCERT generates signs and manages keys for secure communications between the components of a connected car for in-vehicle and off-board applications.

INCERT, as a public agency, promotes Luxembourg’s know-how internationally in terms of cybersecurity and digital solutions. The Agency provides an answer and a long-term value to the current needs of the markets and their future evolution. INCERT employees are proud to work with a global leader specializing in connected devices.

A Master List for authenticating digital health passes has been published in early 2022 by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to help countries and organizations process trusted COVID-19 credentials. The Health Master List provides the root of trust public vital certificates for digital health passes, including digitally signed barcodes. The barcode is verified with its associated public key.    

The system allows aviation stakeholders to verify the authenticity of digital documents and health status without collecting additional personal information. Experts have anticipated it since the first digital health passes started rolling out. The ICAO has partnered with INCERT to establish and manage this Master List.

INCERT has also designed Luxembourg’s first digital wallet. Every resident of the Grand Duchy will be able (within a legal framework that has yet to be specified) to benefit from these identity documents in 2.0 mode. The wallet is a national and European issue. The objective is to allow anyone to have an authentic digital copy of all their papers (or certificates). This digital certificate will be used as a means of identification or authentication in use cases, which could be flights in a country or in the Schengen zone.

This data remains under the exclusive control of its user. And therefore, not in the cloud unless the individual chooses. Eventually, other identity documents, such as their children’s, could be stored there. “When you travel with your children, it is easier to show the copy from the wallet than a copy of the passport. The driver’s license will be in it. Luxembourg is a pioneer. We bring digital comfort to citizens who always carry their passport or driving license,” says Benoit. “Little by little, depending on political decisions, the wallet will be able to be enriched with the storage of new administrative documents. We must of course ensure digital inclusion. Not everyone has the same level of knowledge or access to computers.”