<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=2528533714139722&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
New call-to-action
be-page-banner (1)

Welcome to CIONET Belgium

Realise your ambition! Connect with your local community of digital leaders.

See what's next

Upcoming Events

 
Banner

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.

Read More
Banner

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.

Read More
Banner

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.

Read More

Upcoming TRIBE Events

 
Banner

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.

Read More
Banner

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.

Read More
Banner

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.

Read More

CIONET Partner Updates

CIONET Partner Updates

Recent Cases

Please Log In with your CIONET account first

United Arab Bank leverages Trend Micro Security’s Automated and Integrated Solutions

To safeguard its sensitive customer data and ensure operational resilience, United Arab Bank, a leading financial institution in the UAE, sought a robust security solution. Trend Micro's advanced protection, integrated approach, and automation capabilities proved to be the ideal fit.

OVERVIEW

United Arab Bank, P.J.S.C. (UAB) is among the longest-standing and most innovative banking and financial services firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Based in Sharjah, one of the seven emirates of the UAE, United Arab Bank was incorporated in 1975. United Arab Bank operates seven corporate and retail branches throughout the country.

United Arab Bank’s offerings include corporate and retail banking, trade finance, and treasury services. The bank is seeing strong feedback on its “Sadara” premium banking service and Islamic banking services and aims to further grow its retail customer bank.

Over the past year, United Arab Bank has strengthened its core business and optimized costs to position for future growth.

 

United Arab Bank’s security transformation shows how banks can leverage Trend Micro’s security integration and automation to defend against cyber threats, enhance business processes, and keep customers’ trust.

Ayman AlQudsi

Chief Information Officer
United Arab Bank
 

 
 

CHALLENGES

Major challenges in the banking and finance sector include minimizing operational risk from internal processes and meeting strict government and industry compliance regulations. United Arab Bank’s legacy anti-malware software was not robust enough to monitor employee and customer behavior, or to prevent the wide range of increasingly complex cyberattacks. Managing encryption was also time consuming, with lost credentials taking eight hours on average.

Due to the evolving threat landscape, including banking malware, United Arab Bank conducted a survey of cybersecurity vendors and decided to upgrade its solutions with Trend Micro.

 

Trend Micro’s automated and integrated security solutions, and its strong research and development, are key for our competitiveness, our compliance, and staying ahead of the curve.

Mahmoud Yassin

Head of Information Security
United Arab Bank

 
 

WHY TREND

One of the main selling points has been Trend Micro’s research and development— especially Trend Micro Research security roundups and predictions reports. In addition, Trend Micro XGen™ security capabilities provide United Arab Bank with a layered security approach that can quickly protect, detect, and respond to new threats. In addition, UAB have improved visibility and streamlined investigation across their entire IT infrastructure by adding an endpoint detection and response layer on top of the same agent.

“Connectivity, smart devices, and e-commerce are all fueling the record number of threats in the Middle East’s banking sector,” says Ayman AlQudsi, Chief information Officer at United Arab Bank. “United Arab Bank’s security transformation shows how banks can leverage Trend Micro’s security integration and automation to defend against cyber threats, enhance business processes, and keep customers’ trust.”

 
 

SOLUTION

United Arab Bank has replaced its legacy anti-malware software with Trend Micro’s secure digital platform, which includes full network visibility and management of cyber threats, including advanced persistent threats (APTs). In particular, United Arab Bank has deployed Trend Micro solutions: Smart Protection Complete covers user protection including endpoint security and email to protect UAB’s internal email exchange as well, Deep Security software for workload runtime security, and EDR for real-time threat detection and response. United Arab Bank has also integrated Trend Micro solutions with the VMware NSX virtualization software.

 
 

RESULTS

United Arab Bank is already seeing impressive results—with virtual patching, malware protection, user behavior, and malicious activity monitoring applied for 500 users running 60 systems and apps across 1,000 servers. For example, United Arab Bank reduced time to manage encryption from eight hours to two hours, detects over 80% of cyber threats, and quickly and easily deploys security agents.

“In the face of rising cyber threats against banks in the region, United Arab Bank’s security transformation with Trend Micro assures our customers that they are banking on the most secure banking platform,” says Mahmoud Yassin, Head of Information Security at United Arab Bank.

 
 

WHAT'S NEXT

United Arab Bank is continuing to implement industry best practice and develop shared services and product offerings with its partner banks across the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).  Central to United Arab Bank’s mission is to adopt an innovative banking approach that can continue to deliver a superior customer experience.

United Arab Bank is working closely with Trend Micro on next-generation solutions such as Trend Micro™ Intrusion Protection to protect the environment from known and undisclosed vulnerabilities, Trend Micro™ Deep Discovery™ Inspector to detect targeted attacks and ransomware anywhere in the network (including north-south and east-west network traffic) and detect zero-day exploits and malicious communications, as well as Trend Micro™ Deep Discovery™ Analyzer to extend the value of their Trend Micro solutions by using a centralized custom sandbox to send suspicious files for analysis and share that intelligence to achieve a connect threat defense strategy.

As both the UAE and United Arab Bank are set to mark their 50th anniversary Golden Jubilees in the 2020s, United Arab Bank is ideally-positioned to continue to play a leading role in securing the banking and financial services for customers in the UAE and the GCC for years to come.

“Trend Micro’s automated and integrated security solutions and its strong research and development are key for United Arab Bank’s competitiveness, our compliance, and staying ahead of the curve,” says Mahmoud Yassin, Head of Information Security at United Arab Bank

 
 

Partners

CIONET Circles

CIONET Business Circles

Banner
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?

Read More
Banner
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.

Read More
Banner
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 !

Read More
Banner
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.

Read More

Check out our latest news

Testimonials

Geert Goethals
Geert Goethals
CIO
Sibelga
Bahadir Samli
Bahadir Samli
CIO
ING Belgique
2-Feb-29-2024-11-35-00-9309-AM
Bart Kerkhofs
Vice President & Head of IT
Bridgestone EMIA
Untitled design (1)-Apr-01-2022-10-58-34-57-AM
Michał Paprocki
Group CIO
Euroclear
1-Feb-29-2024-11-34-59-8990-AM
Manfred Boudreaux-Dehmer
Chief Information Officer
NATO
Untitled design-Nov-22-2023-08-42-05-3178-AM
Annick Faes
Vice President IT and CIO Medical Devices EMEA
Johnson & Johnson
Piet_De_Ceuleners
Piet De Ceuleners
Global IT Director
Melexis
1658251930890
Dirk De Bevere
Large Enterprise Sales Leader
Telenet Business
Untitled design-7
Stef Schampaert
Country Managing Director BeLux
Red Hat
CIONET Belgium - Advisory Board Member - Geert Lejon
Geert Lejon
Vice President Head of Belux / Head of Comms Benelux
Cognizant
Kevin_Ledegen
Kevin Ledegen
Group IT director
SDWorx
Gunter-Van-Craen_Small
Gunter Van Craen
Chief Digital & Information Officer
Bekaert
Thomas Kessler
Thomas Kessler
Partner | CIO Programme Leader
Deloitte
Emmanuel Gob
Emmanuel Gob
CIO
DPD
pascal pauwels
Pascal Pauwels
CIO
Colruyt
Untitled design (4)-Dec-13-2023-10-53-15-5032-AM
Koen Segers
Managing Director Belgium and Luxembourg
Dell Technologies
benoit dewaele
Benoît Dewaele
Group IT Directo
Vandemoortele
Dirk Deridder-1
Dirk Deridder
CTO - Technology Services & Practices
SMALS
Thierry Driesens
Thierry Driesens
CIO
TVH
Untitled design-Sep-18-2023-11-59-29-7866-AM
Koen Vandaele
CIO
Delen Private Bank
Untitled design (4)-Jun-12-2023-01-23-11-7540-PM
Liesbet D'hoker
Managing Director
Kyndryl BeLux
steven-vermeulen
Steven Vermeulen
CIO
Digitaal Vlaanderen
Jack Hamande
Jack Hamande
Director General Digital Transformation
Federale Overheidsdienst Beleid en Ondersteuning
Tom Tomczak
Tom Tomczak
Chief Commercial Officer (CCO)
NRB
1726588748718
Cassandre Laurent
Directeur général
Agence du Numérique
an swalens
An Swalens
Head Of IT (CIO)
National Bank of Belgium
Untitled design (2)-Apr-01-2022-10-58-34-68-AM
Elke Laeremans
Chief Digital & Supply Chain Officer at Casa International
CIONET Belgium - Advisory Board Member - Koen Van Loo
Koen Van Loo
CIO
Group S.
Peter Sany
Peter Sany
Executive Advisor
Zoom
CIONET Belgium - Advisory Board Member - Steven De Haes
Steven De Haes
Dean
Antwerp Management School
Marleen Thorré
Marleen Thorré
Head of Digital EMEA
Mitsubishi Chemical Group
christel-plessers
Christel Plessers
Head of IT European Markets
Mercedes-Benz Europe
bauduin cor
Baudouin Corlùy
Chief Market Development Officer
LCL Data Centers

Team

Luc Hendrikx
Luc Hendrikx
Partner - CEO
Inès De Bien
Inès De Bien
Partner - CCO
1-Feb-08-2022-10-22-08-68-AM
Daniel Eycken
Partner - COO
Hendrik Deckers
Hendrik Deckers
Partner - Founder
Untitled design (1)-2
Jelte Scheys
Tribes Sales Director Belgium
foto Herman
Herman Roelandts
Tribe Master
Joseph Antoun
Joseph Antoun
Senior Programme Director
1-Dec-16-2021-02-15-57-02-PM
Eman De Sutter
Programme Manager
4-Feb-08-2022-10-22-09-03-AM
Shelly Deracourt
Programme Manager
Untitled design (5)-Sep-01-2022-02-47-55-60-PM
Charlotte Coen
Partner Success Manager
Untitled design (1)-Nov-22-2023-08-56-42-6802-AM
Ivana Bradvica
Programme Manager
ML B-W-1
Martine Lefevre
Financial Controller
Vlera Berishaa (1)
Vlera Berisha
Community Manager
Phaedra Vanhaeren
Phaedra Vanhaeren
Programme Manager

Contact us

Would you like to know more about CIONET Belgium, membership or partnership opportunities? Do you have feedback or any other question? Send us a message!