Victims of cyberattacks suffered losses of 4.2 billion dollars in 2020, compared with 3.5 billion in 2019, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Report. What are the costliest attacks? Compromised business emails alone account for 1.8 billion dollars of these losses. SOCs have emerged in recent years to improve detection of these security incidents. They help companies to react quickly to cyberattacks and to anticipate threats specific to their business sector, thanks to continuous surveillance and analysis of the data collected.

300 cyber security experts

VINCI Energies in Switzerland has begun construction of a new SOC in Basel. It will open in the second half of 2021 on the UptownBasel site, a knowledge centre specialising in Industry 4.0, and will serve as an interface between all existing SOCs in Germany, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Portugal and France. This hub will bring together 300 cybersecurity experts – analysts, penetration testers, digital forensic experts and ethical hackers – from Switzerland, Germany and other European countries. Thanks to this international approach, Axians and Actemium customers will receive information about cross-border digital threats in real time.

“Thanks to this cross-border cooperation between our different cybersecurity teams, coordinated from Basel, our clients benefit from extremely solid managed security solutions,” says Jacques Diaz, CEO of Axians Germany. “Security threats are becoming increasingly international in scope, and their reach is lengthening. That is why our Security Operations Centers, which are already working very well in Hamburg and Ulm, will be collaborating closely with the international SOC hub in Basel. Our expertise in protecting business and carrier networks in Germany will also contribute to the massive growth in managed cybersecurity services.”

Single point of entry

With the emergence of the industrial internet, the boundary between information and communication technology (ICT) and industrial operating technology (OT) has been erased. That is why the SOC in Basel will bring together all Axians and Actemium IT and OT experts to provide a single entry point for VINCI Energies customers. They will monitor and analyse their customers’ IT and OT environments and three-tier architecture (data, application and presentation/front-end). All the companies’ interconnected sensors, machines, installations and devices will be managed, security models and anomalies analysed, and protective measures implemented to ward off any attacks. Industrial companies with growing production infrastructure or targeted Industry 4.0 strategies stand to benefit most strongly from this added value.

“With our new SOC, we are offering comprehensive expertise in today’s cyberthreats,” explains Stefano Camuso, CEO of Axians & Actemium Switzerland. “We detect, analyse, rectify and document incidents affecting our customers’ security 24 hours a day. Thanks to our high prevention rate and our focus on ICT and OT security, we are creating in Basel a leading European cybersecurity hub for the Industry 4.0 era.”