Spotit and Shield vzw join forces to better protect hospitals and higher education institutions from cybercrime
Press release | 03 March 2025
As of today, hospitals, colleges, and universities in Belgium can rely on cybersecurity specialist spotit to strengthen their defenses against cyberattacks. Shield vzw, a collaborative organization dedicated to supporting healthcare and higher education institutions in building and managing robust cybersecurity architectures, has selected spotit as a new partner in its NextGen/Network firewall procurement process. “The healthcare sector in Belgium remains a major target for cyberattacks. As a partner of Shield vzw, we can leverage our expertise alongside technology leader Cisco to enhance digital resilience in both the healthcare and education sectors,” says Steven Vynckier, CEO of spotit.
Rising Cyber Threats in Healthcare and Education
Hospitals and schools are frequent targets of cyberattacks. In 2023 alone, EU member states reported 309 major cyber incidents in the healthcare sector—the highest number among all critical industries. As healthcare providers increasingly rely on digital patient records, the risk of data-related threats continues to grow. A wide range of systems, including electronic health records, hospital workflow systems, and medical devices, can be affected by these attacks, putting not only patient care but even lives at risk.
Protecting networks, personal data, and medical systems
Both the healthcare and education sectors often lack the resources and personnel to effectively counter advanced cyber threats, making them prime targets for hackers. Shield vzw consolidates expertise and resources to offer an efficient and cost-effective defense strategy against the rising tide of cyber threats. As a Shield vzw partner, spotit will now support 48 member institutions in deploying and managing the full Cisco Security portfolio. This includes high-performance firewall solutions as well as comprehensive security measures to protect educational and hospital networks, patient data, and medical systems.
With this partnership, we are helping Belgian hospitals and educational institutions to prevent, detect, and respond to advanced threats, Together with Cisco, we have developed not only a technologically strong solution, but also an extremely attractive financial offer thanks to the framework agreement. We are convinced that this will open doors for many hospitals to achieve a higher level of cybersecurity maturity.
Technical scope of the offering
Through a competitive tender process, spotit was selected to provide Cisco firewall solutions, enabling Shield vzw members to access Cisco’s comprehensive security portfolio.
Current and future members of Shield vzw will benefit from:
- A flexible and scalable NextGen firewall solution for perimeter security, internal segmentation, data centers, and cloud environments.
- A broad range of state-of-the-art security features, including advanced threat detection and prevention (XDR).
- SD-WAN and data center segmentation solutions.
- Support and maintenance through a tiered service offering, ranging from basic support to fully managed security services.
The Cisco Secure Firewall integrates cutting-edge technologies such as the Snort 3 intrusion prevention system (IPS), AI-driven detection, and zero trust micro-segmentation, allowing institutions to achieve a higher level of security. Thanks to our unique Encrypted Visibility Engine (EVE), we can detect and block threats without decrypting encrypted traffic.
Get to know spotit
Meet spotit and Cisco at the Shield vzw event on March 11
To reinforce this partnership, all Shield vzw members are invited to the Shield vzw event on March 11, where spotit and Cisco will present their security solutions and services. Members unable to attend can contact Bruno Mekeirele ([email protected]) for more information.
More info: https://www.shield-vzw.be/shield-event-q1-2025-speakers
Expressing his enthusiasm for this collaboration, Bruno Mekeirele adds: “Our mission is ‘Empowering digital trust for connected people, businesses & machines.’ The fact that we can now extend this mission to the healthcare and higher education sectors is incredibly valuable to us. We look forward to making a real difference with our cybersecurity approach.”