This is how Belgian Pork Group protects itself against cyberattacks

Did you know that a single cyberattack can shut down an entire factory? Belgian Pork Group knows this all too well. With a large production environment spread across Belgium, they leave nothing to chance. That is why they have trusted aspida with their cybersecurity for years. "Every security issue, we discuss with them first."

With more than 1,700 employees and 8 sites, Belgian Pork Group is the largest pork producer in Belgium. "We manage the entire chain, from slaughtering and cutting to the processing of ready-made preparations. There is a lot involved — including on the IT side," says Wouter Melon, IT Manager at Belgian Pork Group. "Having a dedicated security partner is certainly not a luxury."

"We have been working with aspida since 2022. They help us with our cybersecurity in the broadest sense of the word, from recommending the right tools to implementing them flawlessly, proactively thinking about solutions, and keeping us informed of the latest developments. Our PCs' antivirus system is expiring soon. The first we will turn to for advice is aspida."

But where does aspida play a truly indispensable role? In the OT security of Belgian Pork Group, securing the production environment as robustly as possible. "Our OT landscape is at least as large as, if not larger than, our IT landscape," says Wouter. "If there is a gap in its security, the consequences are significant. Our machines could be shut down, bringing production to a halt and stopping all work. That is something you absolutely want to avoid."

"We are currently designing a new cutting room, which will contain around 200 PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers). It is important that if one PLC is hacked, it has no impact on the rest. That requires careful, well-thought-out segmentation. And that is exactly what aspida does."

"In addition, aspida also installed network detection in our OT environment. If there is unauthorised access to a particular segment, it is immediately detected, investigated, and intercepted if necessary."

"For us, the rule is: the moment we have even the slightest doubt about something security-related, we consult aspida. Recently, we also signed an SLA contract with them, which means we can call them 24/7."

So far, Belgian Pork Group has not had to make use of that, though Wouter does recall an earlier incident. "We noticed traffic we did not recognise and thought it might be a cyberattack. Hannes, the founder of aspida, dropped everything, jumped in his car, and drove straight here. In the end, there was nothing to it. But it shows that you can truly rely on aspida."

"Another thing aspida excels at? They know their people. Everyone has their own speciality, and they always match the right person to the task. Aspida works on-site with us two days a week, usually Hannes and Martijn for our general security. But if we need more support with Endpoint Detection & Response for a period, Toby comes in to assist. Aspida is absolutely not a one-man show, but a strong team. And one we get along with very well!"