For me personally, the most important contribution of the Cyber Security Coalition is its ability to increase the visibility of cybersecurity, and inspire more people to choose a cybersecurity career.
Accenture is a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud and security. Thibaut Roisin, Managing Director Security, is leading Accenture’s fast-growing Cybersecurity practice in Belgium and Luxembourg. “We help our clients to secure their digital transformation and build cyber-resilient businesses”, Mr. Roisin says. We asked him why Accenture recently became a member of the Cyber Security Coalition.
What services does Accenture offer in the field of cybersecurity, and which companies do you support?
We provide a wide range of services covering governance and risk, cyber defence, securing of the entire digital core (Cloud, IAM, etc.), and Operational Technology (OT) security services. We deliver these services end-to-end, starting with evaluation and design, right up to managing them on behalf of our clients.
Globally, we serve more than 1,500 clients across all industries, in the cybersecurity domain. In Belgium, we mainly support clients in the public sector (European institutions), banking and insurance, manufacturing, energy, and telco. We also have flagship projects around cloud security, digital identity, cyber defence and security operation centre (SOC) services, OT security, and strategy and risk.
Which trends do you see at or with your customers?
We are seeing an acceleration of investments in cloud security, digital identity, endpoint detection and response (EDR) and SOC projects. This acceleration has been triggered in part by the increase in remote working and the current international context, but also by new requirements linked to cybersecurity regulations. Our clients are also focusing more strongly on cyber resilience, in order to be better prepared in case of cyber incidents.
Which new initiatives is Accenture currently developing or have recently been launched?
We want to contribute to the innovation in the cybersecurity space in Belgium, and to have a direct impact. We have recently launched initiatives on cloud security to help our clients with complex multi-cloud environments, on intelligent SOCs to address both IT and OT, on automation of security testing for applications, on modern IAM (Autonomous Identity), on connected cars, on the metaverse, and on digital twins. Our cybersecurity team in Belgium also won the second place in Accenture’s Global Cyber Technology innovation challenge this year.
Why did Accenture join the Cyber Security Coalition as a premium member?
When we joined the Coalition in the spring of 2022, the main driver was to get involved in the local cybersecurity community and to contribute more to cybersecurity awareness, good practices, security skills building and innovation in Belgium. As we are cybersecurity market leader in Europe and globally, we choose to become a premium member of the Coalition.
We are still in discovery mode for the network. However, we have already contributed to several focus groups, and presented during the Belgian Cyber Security Convention. In addition, several of our clients have presented use cases that we developed with them. We look forward to extending our contribution next year, bringing our global experience and innovation capability to support the Belgian cybersecurity community.
Accenture also contributes to the Coalition’s missions through our own initiatives. These include training, reinforcing diversity in security, investing in innovation and internal cybersecurity innovation contests, driving reskilling programs, and supporting the Belgian Cyber Security Challenge.
What in your opinion has been the biggest added value of the Coalition so far, both for Accenture and for the Belgian economy and society at large?
The biggest added value for Accenture has been the opportunity to meet other security professionals, and exchange ideas and experiences with them. The training opportunity offered is also very much appreciated.
For the Belgian economy and society, the added value of the Cyber Security Coalition is huge. It starts with having a professional representative organization across the private and public sectors that facilitates the exchange of good practices, raises cybersecurity awareness, and publishes best practice and guides, including for small and medium-sized enterprises.
