VINCI Energies, the energy and information and communication technology division of the VINCI Group, is setting up an international Security Operations Center (SOC) in Switzerland with its brands Axians (ICT) and Actemium (industrial technology). As a hub, it thus networks the more than 300 cybersecurity specialists from Switzerland, Germany and other European countries and focuses on security in the area of Industry 4.0, bundling competencies for information and communications technology (ICT) and industrial operating technology (OT) and processing the findings from international scientific collaborations with regard to critical infrastructures. Ed will open on the site of the uptownBasel competence center in the second half of 2021 and will form the hub to the existing local Security Operations Centers in Germany, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Portugal and France. Customers of Axians and Actemium will be able to have the cybersecurity of their digitally connected businesses operated through Basel and receive immediate intelligence on cross-border digital threats through the international approach.
Data theft, cyber extortion, system failures, espionage, hacker attacks, attacks on production facilities and industrial control systems — as companies become increasingly networked and digitalized, the potential risk of cyber attacks also increases. Threats such as the Emotet extortion Trojan, the WannaCry malware, the Stuxnet computer worm and hacker attacks on Industrie 4.0 infrastructures and networks have increased significantly in recent years, according to the findings of industry associations and analysts. According to the Information Security Society Switzerland, manufacturing companies have also fallen victim to malware attacks and in some cases suffered production downtime. At the same time, companies are facing major opportunities for their value creation and resilience through remote work, IoT scenarios and artificial intelligence. According to Gartner, 40% of enterprises are expected to have a cybersecurity management team in place by 2025. Various studies by Gartner, Forrester, IDC and IDG also predict a significantly above-average growth in cybersecurity investments in the coming years.
For all these reasons, the company is making targeted investments in the establishment of an international Security Operations Center (SOC) hub at its Basel site. From there, after opening in the second half of 2021, cybersecurity protection operations will be provided for customers of VINCI Energies brands Actemium (industrial technology) and Axians (ICT) or coordinated jointly with existing local SOCs in Germany, the Czech Republic and other European countries. Particular added value is created here for industrial companies that have grown production infrastructures or targeted Industry 4.0 strategies. In SOC Basel, all networked sensors, machines, systems and devices of companies are monitored, security patterns and anomalies are analyzed and protective measures are initiated to ward off potential attacks.
This is done by a cybersecurity control center in the new competence center, which is staffed around the clock by experts such as SOC analysts, pentesters, digital forensic experts and ethical hackers. For each customer, processes are defined on the basis of so-called “security playbooks” and work is carried out with threat intelligence feeds and malware information security platforms in 7x24h service. The protection of SCADA and MES systems in industrial production is also specifically offered here. In addition, the latest scientific findings from research & teaching at the universities of Lucerne, Northwestern Switzerland and Stuttgart are incorporated into the activities. Cybersecurity specialists from Axians and Actemium are active there themselves as guest lecturers.
“With our new SOC, we offer comprehensive and deep specialized know-how for cyber threats of our time. We detect, analyze, resolve and document security incidents for our customers there around the clock. With our high prevention rate and focus on ICT & OT Security, we are creating a leading European center for cyber security in the age of Industry 4.0 at the Basel site.”
— Stefano Camuso, CEO Axians & Actemium Switzerland
Axians and Actemium already have more than a hundred cyber security customers in Switzerland and Germany, including various automotive suppliers, pharmaceutical and medical technology companies, the packaging industry, banks and insurance companies, as well as energy providers such as E.ON subsidiary Avacon. Many of these customers are looking to award managed security contracts to increase their level of protection, which Axians and Actemium are specifically addressing with their German‑, English- and French-speaking IT & OT SOC Basel. A special innovation is the company’s own anonymized security database, which collects security patterns and incidents. This enables the companies to provide their customers with above-average threat intelligence through statistical analysis and early detection.
Jacques Diaz, CEO of Axians Germany, adds: “Customers benefit from one of the most powerful managed security offerings in the German-speaking region, especially thanks to the cross-border cooperation of our cybersecurity teams, which are coordinated in Basel. Security threats are increasingly international and of growing scope. As a result, our highly successful Security Operations Centers in Hamburg and Ulm will work seamlessly with the international SOC Hub Basel, depending on customer requirements. Our particular strengths in protecting enterprise networks and carrier networks in Germany will also contribute to further disproportionate growth of the managed cybersecurity business.”
The new center is expected to be operational from the end of August 2021 and open in the third quarter of 2021. Currently, in addition to the construction progress, the personnel base for managed cybersecurity projects is being further expanded through a recruiting offensive to make the site the leading security operations center in Europe. A new innovation center is currently being built by uptownBasel AG on the site of the former Alioth electricity company and locomotive production facility, where a total of 2,000 new jobs will be located by 2027. The first 400 engineers are expected as early as summer 2021.
“The campus stands for the digital and networked industry, which is closely connected across borders. The fact that VINCI Energies is now building the Cybersecurity Center for Switzerland here, thus making economic processes and connections more secure in one fell swoop, is a great honor for us and fills us with pride,” says Hans-Jörg Fankhauser, site developer responsible for the Campus uptownBasel in Arlesheim.
The center is the physical location of a cyber security team. The team takes responsibility for monitoring and analyzing the customer’s IT/OT system environment as well as the three-tier security architecture (data, logic, presentation/front-end). It also detects, actively prevents, or responds to cybersecurity incidents. A SOC team typically consists of security analysts, technicians, managers, as well as industry experts and a central point of entry for customers. Security incidents are handled quickly by a customer-specific response team. A common reason for outsourcing SOC services is that companies do not want to or cannot maintain this rare combination of specialized skills themselves.
