Since 2021, France's National Civil and Military CBRN-E Training Centre (Centre national civil et militaire de formation et d’entraînement NRBC-E), the government service responsible for preparing civilian and military personnel to manage nuclear, radiological, biological, chemical and explosive crises, has relied on the French secure video conferencing solution Private Discuss to run its training courses and webinars.
The choice came about during the COVID-19 health crisis, when the centre had to move part of its activities online at short notice, while maintaining high standards of reliability and communications security.
Remote training without compromising communications security
Used to on-site training and critical environments, the National Civil and Military CBRN-E Training Centre had to adapt its practices quickly when the health crisis made remote delivery unavoidable.
The stakes were high: ensuring the continuity of sensitive training while maintaining a high level of reliability, security and credibility. Participants had to be able to follow sessions from home as well as from the centre's facilities, with no loss in the quality of exchanges.
In this context, the centre looked for a solution able to meet these operational constraints.
Choosing a secure communication solution
The centre turned to the video conferencing solution developed by Private Discuss, a French company specialising in secure communication for sensitive environments.
The aim was to have a tool offering a user experience comparable to the major international platforms, while guaranteeing a higher level of security. Communications are end-to-end encrypted and the infrastructure is deployed outside the scope of US extraterritorial legislation.
The solution relies in particular on a dynamic encryption mechanism: each session generates a unique key, which is deleted at the end of the exchange.
Maintaining the centre's operational capability
For the CBRN-E centre, the challenge was not only about continuity of teaching. It was also about preserving its ability to train the public-sector stakeholders involved in managing major crises.
Putting the solution in place made it possible to maintain this training capability despite the constraints of remote delivery, ensuring the continuity of the centre's missions.
Webinars bringing together several hundred participants
As on-site activities gradually resumed, the centre continued to use remote delivery for certain formats, webinars in particular.
These events regularly bring together between 250 and 400 participants, more than some government tools can accommodate. During preparations for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, some webinars even exceeded 500 registrants.
The solution therefore had to be able to handle a large number of simultaneous connections while maintaining a high level of security.
A solution already used by several ministries
The CBRN-E centre reports to the Ministries of Health, Defence and the Interior. These three administrations were already using Private Discuss in various contexts, which made it easier to adopt.
In practice, government tools are preferred wherever possible. Private Discuss is used when technical constraints or security requirements call for an additional level of assurance.
“In critical environments, communications security is a condition of mission continuity.”