By Virginia Gonzalez – Venturn Young Professional
You receive a notification of a potential data leak on Friday afternoon. What do you do? Do you take immediate action, or do you wait to think it might not be that serious?
What if you suspect that an employee is leaking sensitive information, but you have no concrete evidence? Do you launch an internal investigation right away, or do you first consult internally with HR of a supervisor?
Do you think your employees are sufficiently trained to recognize incidents quickly and act correctly? And do you consider that the biggest threat to ports today comes from digital attacks, or physical sabotage?
These were just a few of the dilemmas and considerations we tackled during the Belgisch-Nederlandse Havendag which took place last 24th of June at the heart of Gent.
Tackling real-world challenges
The day was entirely dedicated to the topic ‘Safety in the Ports’, dealing with physical security, awareness, incident response and cybersecurity, public-private collaborations in addressing today’s challenges in the ports, and subversive crime. The event started with a networking session in the main hall followed by panel sessions.
This conference brought together various professionals from the maritime industry: harbour masters, harbour captains, public sector officials, CEOs, COOs, and CISOs from both countries. Thanks to all these interdisciplinary backgrounds, an interesting discussion about port resilience, security, and awareness arose.
Venturn has participated in this important day, leading the change in the industry by understanding the relevance of physical security and cybersecurity. We bring our clients the most up-to-date information to ensure that the topic of resilience becomes both easily understandable and a key priority for organizations.
“The event presented relevant topics in today’s unstable international landscape, from interesting panels, interviews, pitches and fun intermezzos that kept the audience, me included, always engaged.” – Virginia
The growing challenge of resilience in ports
The Dutch and Belgian harbours are currently facing a significant challenge: Resilience.
Awareness, resilience, and public-private collaboration are essential when it comes to ensuring port security. However, staying up to date with all new developments is far from easy. New legislation, such as NIS2, the AI Act, and the ISPS Code, along with cybersecurity certifications like ISO 27001, adds complexity. This is further complicated by the fact that the translation of legislation into national law differs between the Netherlands and Belgium.
Enhancing capabilities through collaboration
The panels emphasized the importance of enhancing the capabilities of organizations, governments, and even the European Union. This can be achieved by ensuring a clear division of responsibilities and by involving the right experts. These experts can help determine how to respond when incidents occur, whether those incidents are related to criminal activity, emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, or the need for strategic autonomy of the EU.
Risk management: Focus on what matters most
In this context, conducting a risk analysis and defining what is and is not acceptable for your organization is essential. It helps focus attention on the most critical issues. Effective risk management starts with understanding both internal and external risks.
- Internally, it is about how well employees are prepared to respond to incidents like cyberattacks or sabotage.
- Externally, the geopolitical environment plays a significant role. That is the reason why collaboration, knowledge sharing, and preparedness are essential.
Shared responsibility
Securing the maritime sector is a shared responsibility. It begins with thorough screening processes before individuals start working, protecting internal data, investing in tools like container scanners, using , and implementing strong prevention measures. But it also means understanding your own role and responsibilities within your organization and taking appropriate action.
The panels emphasized several practical steps that you can follow:
- Conduct a risk analysis
- Establish an emergency plan
- Raise awareness
- Continuously monitor systems
- Use encryption
- Set strong, lengthy passwords and use a password manager to store them
- Enable multi-factor authentication
- Prepare an incident response plan
- Maintain backups
- Install updates and antivirus software
- Implement network segmentation
- Follow established norms and standards
Ultimately, the first and most important step is awareness within yourself, your colleagues, and your environment. The main approach should be to protect information and regularly assess what actions you can take.
The key to success: continuous improvement
While summarizing the entire conference in one word is challenging, one key concept clearly emerged across the sessions: continuous improvement.
Consistent changes can lead to significant progress over time. It is not just about repairing problems, but about proactively identifying opportunities to improve, and adapt easily to always stay prepared and achieve long-term success.
“Continuous improvement is also what I am learning at Venturn as a Venturn Young Professional. I think this is the key when facing new scenarios, new challenges, and assignments. Continuous improvement is a vital approach for staying adaptable and relevant within the maritime sector.” – Virginia
Takeaways from the conference
Finally, Virginia found two key messages shared by the panelists especially important. The first is to understand your role and take action. The second is to aim for your security to be like a garlic clove with multiple layers protecting it. This layered approach should be the level of security your organization strives to achieve.
“I firmly believe that resilience in the port sector has become more important than ever, especially given the growing complexity and diversity of threats. In today’s world, assuming that your organization will not be targeted through ransomware, social engineering or DDoS is no longer a valid statement. There is no 100% security within your organization. Therefore, you need to understand your capabilities and invest in tools, trainings, MFA, firewalls, along with the right capabilities to stay prepared and ensure you can respond effectively as needs evolve. Proactive measures must be taken to strengthen systems, people, and processes. Staying informed and up-to-date is crucial when it comes to resilience and security.” – Virginia
The power of connection and knowledge sharing
Participating in conferences like this one offers valuable perspectives that we might not encounter in our day-to-day work while allowing us to connect with professionals from the sector. These insights help Venturn and our clients to challenge assumptions and build more robust, prepared organizations.
