About Dirk Hoke
At the 2019 Munich Cyber Security Conference, Dirk Hoke, then CEO of Airbus Defence and Space, discussed the evolution of cybersecurity attitudes in industry. He recalled that nine years earlier, executives at large companies were reluctant to adopt cloud services or invest heavily in cybersecurity, citing a lack of major incidents. Hoke noted that the landscape has since changed rapidly due to technological, societal, and industrial shifts, and that industries are now recognizing their vulnerability.
Hoke emphasized the importance of ensuring that data generated is the same as data consumed, pointing to examples such as artificially altered videos and audio. He stated that if the financial system, infrastructure, governments, and industry are not safe, it will be difficult to stabilize the way forward, and that cybersecurity will be a crucial part of that effort. He called for closer cooperation between industry and government to create a "push-pull system" for threat analysis and counter-protection, describing current communication between companies and countries as "really slow."
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Dirk Hoke's recent appearances.
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Transcript (4 segments)
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Host0:00
Please welcome Dirk Hoke to the stage.
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Dirk Hoke0:10
Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, it's an absolute pleasure to be here at the biggest trade show for unmanned technology and services. I'm here to talk about the future of unmanned flight as Airbus sees it. We make things fly—this demonstrator is being built at our A³ in Silicon Valley. But it's more than just the vehicle; we look at how to provide solutions for mega trends like urbanization and congestion. Commuters lose about two weeks a year in traffic, with DC averaging over 80 hours. We believe the third dimension can provide solutions. We also focus on digital-enabled services: pooling passengers, on-demand dispatching, and safety according to aerospace certification regulations. Airbus has the expertise for that. Why are we at AUVSI? We currently provide military drones, but we're entering the commercial space because the market is fragmented. Large global customers like oil and gas companies operating in over 100 countries need a single provider for drone services. Airbus is a strong brand with a reputation for safety and regulation, and we can provide certifiable platforms. We already do aerial digital services using satellite data—for example, analyzing power lines to identify where trees need trimming, and precision agriculture with 18,000 existing customers. In the future, we can combine satellite and drone data for better service, like disaster relief after a hurricane. Regulation must improve, and we're working with certification bodies on air traffic management. We have demonstrators globally. Now, I'd like to show a brand-new video introducing a new service.
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Narrator7:59
Satellite and drone technologies are expanding the boundaries of possibility, changing how we manage resources, make decisions, and connect. Airbus Aerial is a comprehensive digital service bringing together small drone technology, high altitude unmanned aircraft, existing satellite infrastructure, and customized software to manage data capture and analysis, providing truly actionable data to customers. This service utilizes every layer of the data capture infrastructure for a holistic view of high-quality imagery and sensing solutions.
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Dirk Hoke10:08
So this is a world premiere for us. Normally we develop things thoroughly and then go public, but here we're doing it differently. This is an ecosystem where we want to partner with software developers and hardware producers to create a global service for critical industries. We bring existing technologies: satellite data from our own satellites, high altitude pseudo-satellites for connectivity and imagery, and our own UAV platforms. But we don't have to do everything ourselves—many companies can join forces with us. We're building the Airbus cloud, a public and private cloud, and we invite companies to be service providers for software applications and data analytics on that platform. Our certification expertise can help certify vehicles for the ecosystem. We'll test certain verticals this year to scale the business. Jesse Cman is the new president of our US operations, and he and his team are at the booth today to discuss long-term partnerships. I look forward to working with many of you, and hopefully next year at AUVSI we can present existing business models and platforms that will convince you this is the way to go. Thank you for your attention.
