Orange Cyberdefense struck a partnership with French player Mistral AI to develop services using a specialised version of its latest large language model, as European companies look to strengthen defences against automated digital threats.

The deal gives Orange Cyberdefense early access to a cybersecurity-optimised version of Mistral Large 4. The companies aim to apply the technology across multiple stages of defence operations.

Initial work will focus on penetration testing of information systems and technical audits, using AI to explore a wider range of potential attack scenarios and identify weaknesses in customers’ systems. The technology will also be used to speed post-incident investigations by analysing security traces and reconstructing attacks.

Both companies stressed use cases would operate under human oversight, with access management, traceability and security testing among the safeguards. Critical actions will remain the responsibility of experts.

The Orange unit also spotlighted sovereignty, stating it would use European computing capacity to run the cybersecurity models.

Mistral AI co-founder and CTO Timothee Lacroix noted the companies want to provide European organisations with a “sovereign, trusted AI solution to defend themselves”.

The partnership comes as cybersecurity providers contend with hackers increasingly using AI to automate attacks.

“Volume, speed, trust: these are the three challenges facing cybersecurity in the age of AI,” noted Orange Cyberdefense CEO Hugues Foulon.

“As threats become ever faster, industrialised and now automated, defence must operate at a different scale,” he added, arguing that combining AI capabilities with its threat intelligence would help protect customers “more broadly, more quickly and with trusted European technology”.

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Orange CEO Christel Heydemann (pictured) pointed to developments across several operations in Europe and its enterprise offerings during an upbeat Q3 results discussion, a period in which its Middle East and Africa unit again provided a revenue boost.  

The executive noted progress in its strategic plan including the launch of new deals in France, sustained growth in its cybersecurity unit and integration of the operator formerly known as MasOrange in Spain following a buyout completed in June.

She also noted it obtained an extended SecNumCloud security and digital sovereignty qualification for Orange Business’ cloud offerings.

Although taking place after the end of the quarter, she highlighted a letter of intent inked with peers Telefonica, Vodafone Group and Deutsche Telekom to explore a joint bid for spectrum in Europe for mobile satellite services.

Heydemann said the “initiative supports the ambition to strengthen the sovereignty, security and resilience of Europe’s strategic infrastructure”.

Another ongoing strategic move by the operator is a proposed purchase of assets from Altice-owned French rival SFR as part of a wider deal with Bouygues Telecom and Free–Iliad Group.

Orange noted the deal is still expected to close in H2 2027, though added “while rulings are expected in proceedings brought by the works council within the Altice France group, Orange remains committed to constructive social dialogue, which is ongoing”.

Numbers
The operator booked revenue of €12.2 billion in Q3, up 3.6% year-on-year. It noted all geographic regions contributed to the increase: MEA was up 14%, Spain 3.5%, France just above flat and the rest of Europe up 5.3%.

“Africa and Middle East continued its remarkable growth, while Europe, particularly Poland, delivered solid results,” Heydemann said.

The company does not report net profit figures in Q3, but noted its EBITDaL was up 4.6% to €4.1 billion.

Its annual financial guidance for EBITDaL was raised from an expectation of above 4% to more than 4.5%.

“This third quarter confirms the strong momentum generated by our Trust the Future plan,” the CEO added.

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A quarter-century ago, after a deadly terrorist attack raised fiery explosions from the World Trade Center buildings, the US Department of Homeland Security introduced a color-coded advisory system, under which orange signified “High Risk of Terrorist Activities.” For many people, including Dushko Petrovich Córdova, “this ambient, lingering orange signaled that emergency was continuous, a new way of living.” Ours is a world of prison jumpsuits and Home Depot, leaders with an affinity for fake tans and “aptitude for the orange of perpetual crisis,” public health maps of infection rates painted various shades of orange to mark severity, a sky dyed orange by wildfire smoke. We are inundated by the color; it feels, at times, inescapable. Is it really? Follow Córdova to the brilliant end of this stunner.

Once, in the late ’90s, a few years before the dawn of the orange era, I found myself in Montreal for a friend’s wedding. There was a wildfire nearby, and I remember trying to capture the eerie effect of the atmosphere turning orange with the disposable cameras that had been handed out to all the guests. The resulting pictures looked underexposed and nothing more, the otherworldly orange haze rendered mostly regular gray.

So, decades later, in 2023, when photos of smoke from yet another Canadian wildfire began to appear on social media, I was surprised by how well digital photography had captured what had proved so elusive in the late disposable-camera era. The best civilian shot I saw was of the scenery through a window. The cool interior lighting framed the orangeness outside, in the same way that you might frame a sunset, except that instead of a bright band of orange light at the horizon, this orange was everywhere, pressing at all the edges of the window frame and probably trying to get in through the cracks. In another image I saw a gray cat sitting on a windowsill, apparently unperturbed by the wide expanse of horror just behind it.