On January 15, 2026, the Swiss-Africa Cybersecurity Community held its fourth workshop as part of its ongoing agenda to foster discussion and knowledge exchange in the field of cybersecurity. The workshop was hosted by Haute École Arc Neuchâtel.

Focusing on the machine tool industry, the one-hour workshop was led by Prof. Nabil Ouerhani and Jules Schnell. The session covered the current state of the machine tool sector and Industry 4.0, as well as the opportunities and challenges associated with Industry 4.0. Further topics included Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and cybersecurity vulnerabilities, along with relevant EU regulations and standards for machine cybersecurity.

The workshop concluded with a demonstration of the intermediate results of a master’s thesis presented by Jules Schnell. The thesis aims to develop an automated framework for evaluating software compliance based on recognized standards. The proposed solution seeks to simplify audit and compliance processes for machine builders.

In total, the community has organized four workshops through four of its partner institutions: Africa Blockchain Institute (Rwanda), University of Buea (Cameroon), ISACA Switzerland Chapter, and Haute École Arc Neuchâtel.