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Belgium 19-5-26 Invitation Only Physical english

AI vs AI in Cybersecurity: When defenders and attackers both use AI

The game has changed, clearly. Attackers have AI, defenders have AI, and both sides are learning faster than anyone expected, or maybe the attackers are just a bit faster. What used to take hours now happens in seconds, and detection windows close before alerts even appear. It’s adaptation beyond automation, and no one gets to sit still. But every promise of AI-driven defence comes with a price. The tools are expensive to train, maintain, and monitor. Mistakes cost more too. False positives drain teams, model drift hides real threats, and poisoned data turns protection into confusion. So now it’s not only about defending networks, it’s about defending the defenders themselves, from fatigue, blind trust, and automation gone wrong. So how do you keep visibility when both sides use the same weapons? How do you detect intent when patterns look human but aren’t? How do you justify cost when failure still happens, just faster? Let’s explore what happens when algorithms face each other on both sides of the firewall, and what new defences emerge when speed alone is no longer enough. A closed conversation about a future where cybersecurity becomes an AI vs AI battle, and humans still have to win.

Belgium 21-5-26 All Members Physical english

Replace, Wrap, or Rebuild? : Core modernization in financial services and insurance, without a full rewrite.

For banks, insurers, and other financial services leaders, core modernization is rarely a simple technology decision. The harder question is what to replace, what to wrap, what to rebuild selectively, and what to leave alone. This round table brings together senior peers to discuss how they are making those choices under real constraints: resilience, control, regulatory scrutiny, delivery speed, vendor dependency, and the risk of getting sequencing wrong. The conversation will focus on practical judgment, where modernization creates value, where it adds risk, and how to move forward without triggering another multi-year transformation cycle. A small-group discussion for leaders looking for clear decisions, credible trade-offs, and peer perspective.

Belgium 22-5-26 Invitation Only Physical english

Managing Vendor Lock-In: Balancing dependence, cost, and control in strategic partnerships

Every vendor swears their platform is open, flexible, and built for freedom. Then comes the renewal date. The price goes up, migration looks painful, and “strategic partnership” starts to feel more like dependency. Most organisations don’t get trapped overnight, they walk into it one contract at a time. Broadcom, anyone? We know lock-in isn’t only technical, it’s commercial, architectural, and even cultural. Once tools shape how teams work, switching becomes not only costly but politically impossible. So how do you manage dependency without losing leverage? What do you do when moving away costs more than staying? How do you negotiate from a position of weakness? And what governance models help prevent lock-in before it happens? Let’s share how to keep options open, make vendors compete without breaking partnerships, and find leverage even when it seems there’s none left. A closed conversation for those who’ve learned that freedom in IT is rarely free.

May 19, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

AI vs AI in Cybersecurity: When defenders and attackers both use AI

May 22, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Physical english

Managing Vendor Lock-In: Balancing dependence, cost, and control in strategic partnerships

May 26, 2026 Squad Session Invitation Only Virtual english

The Career Path of the Cloud Engineer: From system builder to strategic enabler of digital scale

The cloud engineer’s world keeps expanding. It started with provisioning and automation, but now it touches everything: resilience, security, cost, and even business continuity. What used to be a back-end function has become one of the most visible roles in digital operations. Yet with that visibility comes pressure: constant evolution, constant firefighting, and very little time to step back and ask, “Where is this career actually going?”

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Carbery Group dairy giant protected with cyber “eyes and ears” from Trend Micro

Dairy giant protected with cyber “eyes and ears” from Trend Micro

OVERVIEW

Carbery Group is a global nutrition and dairy company. Founded in 1965 and today owned by four Irish dairy co-operatives, it employs 750 staff at several facilities worldwide, including Ireland, the UK, Italy, US, Brazil, and Thailand. Chief Information Officer (CIO) Anthony O’Callaghan works with a diverse team of IT professionals supporting sites across the globe.

We want to be confident that we are protected and supported in our digital growth.

Anthony O’Callaghan

Chief Information Officer, Carbery Group

CHALLENGES

Like many CIOs, Anthony O’Callaghan has to balance his budget whilst driving digital innovation to help the organization carve out competitive differentiation in the market. But upon taking on his new position at the Cork-headquartered multi-national Carbery Group, he also recognised that cybersecurity is an often an underrated but essential foundation towards such efforts. Ransomware attackers are using increasingly sophisticated and targeted techniques today to infiltrate networks and cause maximum disruption, often stealing data in the process in order to force payment. Cybercriminals also continue to target corporates for sensitive internal and customer data to sell on the dark web.

The challenge was to standardise Carbery Group’s global cyber operations onto a single vendor across on-premises and cloud systems in order to protect business-critical data and systems at 10 geographically dispersed locations. Anthony wanted a provider that could do much of the heavy-lifting and was also looking for a true partner on cybersecurity, a firm he could trust to go beyond the transactional relationships many vendors offer.

Having worked with Trend Micro for several years in a previous role, although not as a customer, he knew that this was the right choice for Carbery Group.

It’s important to have eyes and ears on this area constantly to stay ahead of cyber threats as they are evolving quickly. That’s what we got from Trend, combined with our internal teams.

Anthony O’Callaghan

Chief Information Officer, Carbery Group

WHY TREND

Anthony chose Trend Micro to support end-to-end global cybersecurity, from the endpoint to networks and cloud workloads. This meant several major investments:

Smart Protection Complete is a comprehensive suite of enterprise products available, (SaaS and on-premises), which cover endpoint security and encryption (via Trend Micro Apex One), mobile security, web security, and email and collaboration security (via Cloud App Security).

Trend Micro Apex One is a blend of advanced endpoint threat protection controls delivered through a single agent to eliminate security gaps across any user activity and any endpoint.
Cloud App Security offers enhanced protection for Microsoft 365® and Gmail™, as well as cloud file sharing platforms, stopping many threats that are missed by native filters.

Deep Discovery Inspector is a physical or virtual network appliance which uses advanced techniques, such as custom sandbox analysis, to rapidly detect advanced, targeted malware that typically bypasses traditional security defences.

Trend Micro Cloud One – Workload Protection is a SaaS solution designed to secure customer data centres, cloud, and containers without compromising performance or security. It’s optimised to integrate tightly into the leading platforms, including AWS, Google Cloud™, and Microsoft® Azure™.

Managed XDR (MDR) is the perfect choice for customers that want to take advantage of holistic threat detection and response but don’t have the in-house resources to manage it. The platform goes beyond the endpoint to also collect and correlate data from email, server, cloud workloads, and network sources. Trend Micro analysts combine their expertise with AI and security analytics, as well as global threat intelligence, to optimise powerful detection and investigation capabilities.

We’re a global organisation and what we wanted was to have someone to keep us safe from the latest cyberattacks 24/7. That’s exactly what we got with Trend Micro.

Anthony O’Callaghan

Chief Information Officer, Carbery Group

RESULTS

The above combination has provided Carbery Group with “a significant stack” of full coverage, with MDR as the cyber “eyes and ears” of the organization, according to Anthony. Implementation was slightly slower than expected due to COVID-19-related issues, but the delays also allowed him to improve security awareness of remote working employees via the Trend Micro Phish Insight tool.

“We want to be confident that we are protected and supported in our digital growth”, said O’Callaghan. ”We’re a global organization and what we wanted was to have someone to keep us safe from the latest cyberattacks 24/7. That’s exactly what we got with Trend Micro. It’s important to have eyes and ears on this area constantly to stay ahead of cyber threats as they are evolving quickly. That’s what we got from Trend, combined with our internal teams.”

Anthony also invested in Trend Micro’s Premium Support Program (PSP) for dedicated round-the-clock help, a named customer service manager, ongoing security assessments and recommendations, priority case handling, and much more. It’s provided further peace of mind and support for the small in-house team at Carbery.

“It’s been a great partnership so far and the team is always there for us and this includes the team we’ve worked with on the commercial side, who we’re still in touch with and have a great relationship with,” says O’Callaghan. “The fact that they’ve also stayed engaged is testament to the organisation Trend Micro is.”

Technologies

Apex One™ Cloud One – Workload Security Trend Micro Cloud App Security™ Trend Micro Phish Insight Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Complete Trend Micro™Deep Discovery™ Vision One™ with Managed XDR

Partners

CIONET Business Circles

Cyber Circle

CIONET’s Cyber Circle: a new three-event programme exclusively focusing on the most urgent, complex, and high-impact challenges in cybersecurity today. Launched in 2026, this initiative brings together CISOs, CIOs, and senior IT executives with a strong interest in cybersecurity for three curated gatherings each year. As part of CIONET’s trusted executive community, the Cyber Circle provides a confidential, peer-driven environment to exchange insights, share real-world experiences, and address evolving cyber threats. Each session is designed to foster strategic dialogue, strengthen resilience, and elevate cybersecurity as a core driver of business value.

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.

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 !

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.