“Because I participate in many European initiatives, I’m deeply connected to European strategies, governance, governments, stakeholders and experts. But in Belgium, my connections were mostly on the female side of the field due to my role within Women4Cyber,” Tasheva explains. “So, I decided to expand my network; I joined the Cyber Security Coalition as an individual member last year, and became part of the focus group on Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC).”
Member-driven context
Tasheva is thus uniquely positioned to compare how the Coalition and Belgium’s broader cyber security ecosystem stack up against counterparts across Europe. “Belgium definitely has one of the most established and active cyber security ecosystems. I think this is partly because Belgian culture emphasises collaboration, and partly because the country has a strong base of security professionals.”
The Coalition’s operations clearly reflect this spirit of collaboration. “It’s really about answering the question: how do we expand the knowledge base? Members drive the agenda, which makes it more dynamic and rewarding. And naturally, this leads to solutions that better address members’ everyday challenges,” she says. This context also explains why Belgium is the perfect home base for Tasheva’s security consultancy, CYEN. “Our services focus on compliance with European regulations – which I helped shape – so it made perfect sense to establish ourselves here.”
Centralisation, bias and awareness
Despite these advantages, there are clear challenges in the field. “Greater unity would make serving the local market much easier,” she says. “Centralisation just makes sense in our field. Just as you can’t build a specialised hospital in every village, you can’t have specialised cybersecurity services from every region.”
Creating a more supportive context is not just good for businesses like hers, it will also help foster a healthier cyber security sector overall. Currently, the market is too dominated by a handful of big players. “Right now, you see large IT companies simply adding security to their portfolios,” she explains. “It’s understandable, as they already have the relationships and the data. But this inevitably creates bias. Either you’re securing your own technology, which should have been secure to begin with, or you’re securing or assessing your competitors.”
This reality makes it harder for smaller players to win contracts and attract new talent. For Tasheva, the situation only underscores the importance of a well-functioning ecosystem, with coalitions playing a key role. “At the end of the day, it’s all about raising awareness about the business value of cybersecurity amongst SMEs. Awareness is and should remain the number one priority. When companies understand the stakes, they’ll naturally invest and will better sense the obvious need for smaller, independent players like us.”
