Railways are built to last for decades, but the systems that run them have changed fast. Onboard, trackside, communications, and passenger systems that once stood apart are now increasingly connected, and rail is critical infrastructure in its own right. The five cybersecurity leaders below protect railways in Norway, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Belgium, from London’s transport network to the trains Alstom builds for operators worldwide. Between them they are designing security into new systems, watching operational technology for intruders, and working out what is connected in the first place.
Christian Juel-Jensen – Head of Digital Security Advisory and Architecture, Bane NOR
At Bane NOR, which manages Norway’s railway infrastructure, Christian Juel-Jensen leads digital security advisory and architecture. He joined in 2023 as a security architect and took on the leadership role in November 2024. With colleague Simonsen, he has presented on building resilient rail systems using reference architecture and IEC 63452, the railway cybersecurity standard. He arrived at Bane NOR with more than two decades of architecture and consulting experience behind him: ten years as a senior consultant at EVRY, chief security architect at Telenor designing security for hybrid environments, technical solutions architect at Cisco, and director at PwC.
Petros Tsekouras – Cyber Security Testing Lead, Transport for London
Petros Tsekouras learned how industrial control systems work by building them. Over five years as a control systems engineer at Firstco, he designed and delivered SCADA and PLC projects for Heathrow Airport and an electrical management system for National Air Traffic Services, before writing automation controls software at Ocado Technology. He moved into cybersecurity at Bridewell Consulting and joined Transport for London in 2022, where he has served as cyber security advisory lead for operational technology since 2023. In September 2026 he also became TfL’s cyber security testing lead, leading a team of cyber security engineers. His 2026 presentation on lessons from deploying intrusion detection in operational technology draws directly on that combination of engineering and security work.
Eddy Thésée – Vice President Cybersecurity, Alstom
Twenty-seven years at Alstom, the last eight leading cybersecurity for its products and solutions. Eddy Thésée defines and executes the cybersecurity strategy for Alstom’s portfolio, leads its product vulnerability management program, and provides governance across its platforms and businesses. As he explained in a 2023 interview, the boundaries between onboard, trackside, communications, and passenger systems have started to vanish, turning trains into complex nested systems. “Rail systems aren’t built in a day, but over decades,” he said, which means managing cybersecurity in a way suited to railways. He joined Alstom’s signalling business in 1999, preparing its systems for the year 2000, and went on to lead IT for its Asia Pacific units and then processes, methods, and tools for its signalling activity, supporting a successful CMMI Level 3 evaluation across eight sites.
Ulrich Zackor – Head of OT Security, DB InfraGO
In 2021, Ulrich Zackor was running a vaccination centre for Deutsche Bahn. A year later he became head of OT security at DB Netz, a role he has continued at DB InfraGO since 2024. In an October 2026 session, he set out his approach to discovering operational technology assets across the railway, strengthening identity controls, and building an OT security program. His path to the role ran through strategy rather than security: he started as a consultant at A.T. Kearney, worked in M&A and as assistant to the chairman of the executive board at Knorr-Bremse, and served as controlling director of its Madrid subsidiary. At Deutsche Bahn he was country manager for Spain, head of strategy for DB Arriva, senior vice president of business development at DB Netz, and head of its PMO reorganization.
Cédric Cecotti – Chief Enterprise Cyber-Resilience Architect, Infrabel
“The world changes. If we play by the old rules, we will lose the new battles.” That line opens Cédric Cecotti’s own profile, and it fits his current job. Since June 2025 he has been Infrabel’s chief enterprise cyber-resilience architect, the company’s cross-functional authority on cyber resilience architecture, including suppliers and stakeholders, and the lead for building cyber resilience by design and default into new projects. Before that he served as Infrabel’s I-CISO for four years. At a joint ENISA and ERA event, he presented Infrabel’s railway CyberSOC, covering monitoring across IT and operational systems, incident response, and crisis management, and in September 2026 he presented on cyber resilience to Infrabel’s rail supply community. He has spent more than 25 years in rail telecoms and security at Infrabel and ICTRA.
Different Routes onto the Same Network
None of the five began in rail cybersecurity. Their routes in ran through control systems engineering, telecoms, IT consulting, corporate strategy, and Alstom’s own signalling business. That range now sits across the infrastructure managers, transport authorities, and manufacturers that keep Europe’s trains running.
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John Kevin Hao is a news and feature writer covering cybersecurity, technology, and business targeted for professional audiences.