ROME \u2014 Italy\u2019s Leonardo is on a shopping spree to beef up Europe\u2019s cyber-defense capability and is targeting Nordic firms to get the job done, CEO Roberto Cingolani has told Defense News. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cingolani laid out the Italian defense giant\u2019s strategy after announcing a series of new investments during the summer. In July, Leonardo took a \u20ac20 million ($23 million), quarter stake in Finnish cyber firm SSH, making Leonardo the largest shareholder and giving it the right to incorporate SSH solutions into its products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A week later Leonardo said it was buying Swedish cyber specialist Axiomatics, adding to an earlier acquisition of a stake in Swedish start up CanaryBit and a partnership deal with Danish firm Arbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur recent activity in the Nordic region is not the result of isolated acquisitions, but part of a broader strategic vision to build sovereign and resilient digital ecosystems across Europe,\u201d Cingolani said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese initiatives reflect our commitment to strengthening European digital autonomy through technologies and products developed and governed in Europe, for the security and competitiveness of Europe,\u201d Cingolani added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CEO said the peculiar qualities of Nordic firms made them key to the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat makes the region attractive is its combination of cutting-edge digital expertise, mature tech ecosystems, and a strong cultural alignment with the values of transparency, security, and technological independence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both SSH and Axiomatics already work for government agencies and \u201cbring valuable capabilities in areas such as cryptography, secure access, and dynamic authorization \u2014 key components for developing trusted European solutions in the defense and critical infrastructure domains,\u201d Cingolani said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He told Defense News the deals will help Leonardo spearhead a European push towards \u201cZero Trust\u201d in cyber security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe \u2018never trust, always verify\u2019 principle is core to the Zero Trust approach,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is becoming the benchmark to guarantee high security levels for digital infrastructures, shifting from a traditional cyber security approach \u2013 mainly focused on protecting perimeters \u2013 to a broader spectrum of cyber resilience. It\u2019s based on a dynamic methodology through which every access is constantly verified, allowing an adequate level of protection for the entire digital infrastructure, from data access to transit and its usage,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That makes Zero Trust key to defense and critical infrastructure computing, and makes Leonardos investments \u201ca decisive move to build a digital ecosystem secured by key sovereign cyber technologies,\u201d Cingolani claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A physicist by training, Cingolani has sought to put cyber defense at the heart of Leonardo\u2019s core mission since stepping into the CEO role in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year the Italian state-controlled firm announced \u20ac648 million in \u201cCyber and Security Solutions\u201d revenue, with new orders rising 20.4 percent to \u20ac833 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe digital space is both a battleground and a strategic asset,\u201d said Cingolani. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe rapid growth of digitization, combined with the exponential impact of artificial intelligence is transforming how threats emerge and how they must be countered. As platforms become smarter and more connected, the attack surface grows. That makes cyber resilience not optional \u2014 but essential,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBy its nature, the cyber dimension permeates all other domains – air, land, sea, space,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cthere can\u2019t be any next-generation combat air, land system, drone, space technology, to name a few, without cyber security by design.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CEO Cingolani laid out the Italian defense giant\u2019s strategy after announcing a series of new investments during the summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":46,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,29,83,46,11,12,36],"tags":[8616],"coauthors":[3345],"class_list":["post-72025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-digital-show-dailies","category-dsei","category-europe","category-global","category-industry","category-newsletters","tag-italy"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"LSMCP5Z5OFAD3AR5OUDSL7TRVE","arc_canonical_url":"\/global\/europe\/2025\/09\/10\/leonardo-snaps-up-nordic-cybersecurity-firms-in-bid-to-shift-focus\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n