Secutec Security Summit 2023

Author: Delia Vervaeke

Language: English

Intro Geert Baudewijns

On Thursday, November 16, 2023, at Technopolis Mechelen, Geert Baudewijns, the big boss at Secutec, kicked off the event. Secutec's been at it for eight years now, and they had a whopping 200 people show up. Plus, about 30 of those were students, including us, which was pretty cool.

Baudewijns talked about Secutec's main products: secureDNS, secureSIGHT, secureCARE, and secureRESPONSE. These tools serve as our cyber guardians, supporting our digital defenses and preventing malicious actors from infiltrating our online assets.

He also mentioned they're getting a new office in Aartselaar, which is awesome news for them.

But it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. Baudewijns dropped some scary stats about cyber stuff. Like, did you know millions of big business accounts get hacked every year? And the dark web has been growing like crazy, about 300% since 2017, which is super creepy.

After that, he handed out a schedule for the day, and we were free to roam around and learn cool stuff. The first company we set our minds onto is Spycloud.

Spycloud

So, when we got to SpyCloud, there were these two speakers, Neill Cooper and Mandeep Sandhu. Neill's like the Senior VP for EMEA, and Mandeep's the Solution Engineering & Investigations Manager. They gave a quick intro about themselves, nothing too fancy.

Then they started talking about SpyCloud's mission, which is basically all about stopping bad guys from making money off stolen data. And man, the stats they dropped were wild. Like, there were over 4 billion malware attempts in 2022! And get this, 422 million people got their info jacked! But the craziest part? SpyCloud recaptured 1.7 billion credentials and 13.8 billion pieces of personal info in just one year! That's insane!

They went on to talk about this ransomware report from 2023, saying ransomware attacks are still a huge problem and they're getting more expensive. They also talked about how tough it is to deal with cyber threats because, you know, humans are kinda unpredictable.

Then they got into SpyCloud's main uses, like protecting companies from cyberattacks, stopping fraud, and investigating cybercrime. After all that talk, they showed us a demo of their product, which was pretty cool.

And finally, they opened it up for questions. People were really into it, asking all sorts of stuff about how SpyCloud works and stuff. It was a pretty cool session, and we learned a lot.

SecureSIGHT

In our latest excursion to SpyCloud, we found ourselves caught in the attracting web of discussion for longer than expected. But hey, who can resist an engaging Q&A session? As we finally took our seats, it seemed we hadn't missed much, maybe just the introduction.

Thomas Jannes got up on stage, mixing his knowledge with humor. He talked about 1977 when firewalls and antivirus software weren't really a big deal yet in the digital world.

Next, Thomas got to the interesting part - breaking down hacker stereotypes. He talked about how people have funny ideas about hackers, from what friends joke about to what worried moms think. Thomas even mentioned how governments have their own ideas about what hackers look like.

However, Thomas didn't just stick to the stereotypes; he went deeper into what hackers really do. He also brought up the MITRE ATT&CK Framework, which added more substance to the discussion.

Enter Securesight – the onion analogy that had us nodding in agreement. With a sly reference to Shrek, Thomas likened the security framework to layers of an onion, each crucial in its own right. Prevent, detect, respond, validate – a cyclical dance of defense mechanisms designed to keep threats at bay.

During the presentation, there were screenshots of Securesight in action, showing how it seamlessly works with various security tools. Thomas also mentioned SentinelOne as a partner in their efforts to strengthen digital security, highlighting the importance of collaboration in this quest.

As the presentation wrapped up, it was obvious that in cybersecurity, knowing your stuff is key, and a little humor never hurts.

Small break 🥤

After the first two sessions, we had a small break. We got to chat with some of the other people and grab some drinks. We got talking with the companies that were presenting, and it was cool to hear about what they do and how they're helping keep us safe online. And of course, we grabbed some goodies too.

SentinelOne

After the break, we went to check out SentinelOne. Christof Jacques was up next, giving us the rundown on what SentinelOne is all about.

He started off by talking about the big challenges every company faces today, like dealing with lots of different tools that don't work together, not having enough skilled people around, and trying to stay secure while changing things up digitally.

Then he told us about SentinelOne's main platform, Singularity, and how their Singularity Endpoint is a big deal. It's all about spotting and stopping problems in real-time, plus being able to fix things and look into what went wrong.

We also got to see a demo of Storylines, which turns boring data into a story we can understand. It's pretty cool for keeping track of what's happening with our cybersecurity.

Christof was cool enough to answer our questions too, which was awesome.

After that, we were pretty tired, so we decided to call it a day and head home. We had a amazing day at the Secutec Security Summit, and we learned a ton about how to stay safe. Can't wait for the next one!