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Welcome to CIONET Belgium

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Upcoming Events

 
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Belgium 23-9-25 Squad Only Virtual english

Cybersecurity Without the Burnout ; Refocusing effort when alerts, threats, and pressure won’t stop

Security teams are overwhelmed. Too many tools. Too many alerts. Too few people. And now, increasing pressure from the board to protect everything, everywhere, all the time. Expect honest reflection, shared strategies, and a conversation that cuts through compliance noise and focuses on what to do when your team is stretched and your risk is rising.

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Belgium 23-9-25 Invitation Only Physical english

Reclaim the cloud : Powering Belgian Finance with Sovereignty

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, the financial services industry in Belgium faces a critical juncture regarding its cloud adoption strategy. While the allure of cloud computing – with its promise of scalability, agility, and innovation – is undeniable, the unique regulatory demands and paramount need for data sovereignty present significant challenges. This CIONET roundtable, aims to bring together Digital Leaders from the Belgian financial sector to discuss how to navigate these complexities. We will explore how financial institutions can leverage cloud technologies while ensuring complete control over their data, maintaining compliance with stringent European regulations like GDPR and DORA, and mitigating geopolitical risks.

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Belgium 24-9-25 Invitation Only Physical english

Bridging the Unbridgeable: IT Meets M(i)OT ; Converged infrastructures demand converged security

As smart devices proliferate across operational environments — from sensors on factory lines and GPS trackers in logistics fleets to wearables in healthcare and connected systems in smart cities — the integration of Managed IoT (MiOT) is accelerating. But with it comes a surge in cybersecurity risks. No longer isolated or air-gapped, OT systems are becoming fully networked, remotely accessible, and deeply entwined with IT. This creates a vulnerable, highly complex digital mesh, one where a single compromised device can trigger physical, financial, and reputational consequences.

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Upcoming TRIBE Events

 
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September 23, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english

Cybersecurity Without the Burnout ; Refocusing effort when alerts, threats, and pressure won’t stop

Security teams are overwhelmed. Too many tools. Too many alerts. Too few people. And now, increasing pressure from the board to protect everything, everywhere, all the time. Expect honest reflection, shared strategies, and a conversation that cuts through compliance noise and focuses on what to do when your team is stretched and your risk is rising.

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September 30, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english

Technical Debt: When to Pay It and When to Walk Away ; Making smart trade-offs between progress, maintenance, and risk

Everyone has technical debt. The question is what to do with it. Refactor now? Wait for the next feature? Build on it and hope it holds? If you’re tired of debating whether to clean up or move on, this session helps you frame the debt conversation in a way that supports both speed and stability.

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October 2, 2025 Squad Session Squad Only Virtual english

The Career Path of the Architect ;Great architecture begins with great architects

Architecture doesn’t happen in diagrams. It happens in minds, seasoned, curious, sharp minds that understand how the pieces fit. But who’s shaping these minds? Who’s growing the next generation of digital architects? If you’re responsible for complex systems, and for the people designing them, this session is for you.

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CIONET Partner Updates

CIONET Partner Updates

Recent Cases

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Trend Micro Restores Essential Systems for Banijay Benelux Within Days of a Ransomware Attack

Banijay Benelux, a part of the Banijay media brand, produces and distributes popular television programs across the Netherlands and Belgium. In 2020, its business was brought to a sudden halt during a ransomware attack. AWS Partner Trend Micro quickly stepped in to prevent damage from spreading, then implemented new security precautions.

 

"Trend Micro instantly had the right tools to protect and to monitor specific areas. To do that without affecting performance or creating downtime was really impressive."

Leon Backbier Manager of IT, Banijay Benelux

 

 

Leveraging the Right Team’s Expertise to Address Ransomware Attack

 

Banijay Benelux—an Amsterdam-based company founded in 2020 and part of the Banijay Group television production and distribution business—develops sports programs, reality shows, and dramas such as Big Brother, Expeditie Robinson, and Penoza. It relies on AWS to support human resources, invoicing, and other business-critical tasks.

In early November 2020, Leon Backbier, manager of IT for Banijay Benelux, was awakened by a pre-dawn phone call from a colleague in the UK: a ransomware attack was targeting the company’s cloud infrastructure. Backbier and his team contacted long-term AWS Partner Trend Micro, which at the time managed on-site endpoints—but not cloud—security for Banijay Benelux, and asked for help.

Trend Micro quickly began working to minimize the attack’s scope, strengthen the company’s cloud security, and remediate and rebuild the affected servers. Over the next few months, Trend Micro would continue to monitor Banijay Benelux’s AWS infrastructure for additional threats, while also restoring the damaged infrastructure. Today, it provides the company with 24/7 managed cloud security.

 

"I’m feeling quite confident. I’m sleeping well every night again, because Trend Micro is watching over us. I can have an 8-hour sleep again."

Leon Backbier Manager of IT, Banijay Benelux

 
 

Essential Systems Restored Within 3-4 Days

 

Banijay Benelux refused to pay the attackers’ ransom and Backbier’s team members found that every server they tried to access was immediately encrypted. Within hours, Trend Micro was working to mitigate damage.

Trend Micro started by examining traffic logs and installing hardware to secure the company’s network. It also installed monitoring software to track activity across Banijay Benelux’s AWS environment, which included over 20 servers. “They instantly had the right tools to protect and to monitor specific areas,” says Backbier. “To do that without affecting performance or creating downtime was really impressive.”

Next, Trend Micro began working to rebuild the handful of servers that had been damaged by the ransomware. The first step was to use a script that automatically installed Trend Cloud One—a cloud security platform created specifically for those building on AWS—the moment the team spun up a new instance of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) to replace a damaged server. This allowed Banijay Benelux to restore essential business systems within a few days of the attack. “In 3–4 days, we had the most vital systems running so we were able to access our bookkeeping,” says Backbier. “We could pay salaries again.”

Trend Micro also searched the dark web for efforts to sell data stolen from the company. Fortunately, Banijay Benelux was able to secure its systems before losing any sensitive personal or confidential data that might have led to fines for violating the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Despite having to work remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trend Micro team met with Banijay Benelux three times a day to keep the company up to date on monitoring and recovery efforts. The security company also conducted an ongoing search for suspicious traffic to ensure that the hackers were no longer lurking.

Getting everything back to normal again took about 3 months. “We have production companies that organize a lot on Excel sheets and paper and that wasn’t affected that much,” Backbier says. “We lost the system where we do workflow for the invoices, so we had to do that by hand just to be able to pay creditors.”

Banijay Benelux had been in the process of implementing a new invoicing system at the time, so it accelerated that project rather than trying to rebuild the old system. As the weeks passed, the company gradually grew more confident that the hackers no longer had access to its infrastructure. “I felt completely confident after Christmas time—that gave me the feeling that we were in a good place,” Backbier recalls. Today, he adds, “I’m feeling quite confident. I’m sleeping well every night again, because Trend Micro is watching over us. I can have an 8-hour sleep again.”

By this point, Banijay Benelux had begun talking with Trend Micro about providing ongoing managed security services for its cloud infrastructure. “My IT team is rather small,” says Backbier. “You can’t have all the expertise compared to a company like Trend Micro. That’s its core business.”

 

Response Was the ‘Ultimate Proof of Concept’

 

Although organizations share a security responsibility in the cloud, they often require support to deliver it. As an AWS Level 1 Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP), Trend Micro has demonstrated the capacity to augment security teams’ resources with 24/7/365 managed detection, response, and support through its cloud security and XDR solutions and service teams. Today, Banijay Benelux has added confidence around its cloud security, thanks to Trend Micro’s 24/7 monitoring. It also knows that it has a partner that can jump in quickly to solve problems if a security incident develops. “I think what the hack proved was that they really can do what they promise—that gave me the feeling we made the right choice,” says Backbier. “That was the ultimate proof of concept for me.”

The ransomware incident also increased awareness at the company’s leadership level about the value of managed security. Now that it has a single dashboard to monitor security across its IT infrastructure, Banijay Benelux has deep and continual insights into its risk profile. “Security is high on everybody’s agenda,” says Backbier. “And that’s good.”

 

Business benefits:
  • Essential capabilities restored days after attack
  • No need to pay ransom to hackers
  • Threat stopped before costly loss of data
  • New confidence in 24/7 security managed services
 

Partners

CIONET Circles

CIONET Business Circles

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Healthcare Circle

Digital Transformation is redefining the future of health care and health delivery. All stakeholders are convinced that these innovations will create value for patients, healthcare practitioners, hospitals, and governments along the patient pathway. The benefits are starting from prevention and awareness to diagnosis, treatment, short- and long-term follow-up, and ultimately survival. But how do you make sure that your working towards an architecturally sound, secure and interoperable health IT ecosystem for your hospital and avoid implementing a hodgepodge of spot solutions? How does your IT department work together with the other stakeholders, such as the doctors and other healthcare practitioners, Life Sciences companies, Tech companies, regulators and your internal governance and administrative bodies?

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Telenet Business Leadership Circle

The Telenet Business Leadership Circle powered by CIONET, offers a platform where IT executives and thought leaders can meet to inspire each other and share best practices. We want to be a facilitator who helps you optimise the performance of your IT function and your business by embracing the endless opportunities that digital change brings.

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Les Rencontres

Découvrez la dynamique du leadership numérique aux Rencontres de CIONET, le programme francophone exclusif de CIONET pour les leaders numériques en Belgique, rendu possible grâce au soutien et à l'engagement de nos partenaires de programme : Deloitte, Denodo et Red Hat. Rejoignez trois événements inspirants par an à Liège, Namur et en Brabant Wallon, où des CIOs et des experts numériques francophones de premier plan partagent leurs perspectives et expériences sur des thèmes d'affaires et de IT actuels. Laissez-vous inspirer et apprenez des meilleurs du secteur lors de sessions captivantes conçues spécialement pour soutenir et enrichir votre rôle en tant que CIO pair. Ne manquez pas cette opportunité de faire partie d'un réseau exceptionnel d'innovateurs numériques !

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Female Leadership Circle

CIONET is committed to highlighting and celebrating female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, creating a leadership programme that empowers and elevates women within the tech industry. This initiative is dedicated to showcasing the achievements and successes of leading women, fostering an environment where female role models are recognised, and their contributions can ignite progress and inspire the next generation of women in IT. Our mission is to shine the spotlight a little brighter on female role models in IT, Tech & Digital, and to empower each other through this inner network community.

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Team

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Tribe Master
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Programme Manager
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