{"id":94,"date":"2025-10-08T09:08:38","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/?p=94"},"modified":"2026-05-26T09:14:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T09:14:21","slug":"mastering-the-threat-landscape-insights-from-the-howest-tech-meet-on-cyber-threat-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/?p=94","title":{"rendered":"Mastering the Threat Landscape: Insights from the Howest Tech & Meet on Cyber Threat Intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Staying ahead of modern adversaries requires more than just reactive security controls\u2014it demands proactive intelligence. On October 7th, 2025, Howest hosted an insightful Tech & Meet<\/strong> evening event at our Bruges Station campus that tackled this exact challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event, titled “CTI: From Threats to Intelligence,”<\/strong> brought two premier experts from the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB)<\/strong> straight to our campus: Sandro Manzo<\/strong> (Lead of the Fusion Centre at CCB\/CyTRIS) and Niels Desloover<\/strong> (Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst at CCB\/CyTRIS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a cybersecurity student focused on Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC), I found this session incredibly valuable for understanding how technical threat data directly influences strategic organizational risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Demystifying Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The evening was designed to make the complex world of CTI accessible to everyone, from seasoned IT professionals and security officers to curious tech students. Sandro and Niels did a fantastic job of breaking down what Threat Intelligence actually means in practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few core takeaways from their presentation included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Data vs. Intelligence:<\/strong> Raw data about a threat (like an IP address or file hash) isn’t intelligence until it is analyzed, contextualized, and made actionable for an organization.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The CyTRIS Perspective:<\/strong> Hearing directly from the CCB\u2019s internal cyber threat intelligence unit gave us a front-row seat into how national security entities track, analyze, and mitigate threats targeting Belgian infrastructure.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Proactive Defense:<\/strong> CTI allows organizations to shift from a defensive, firefighting posture to a proactive state\u2014anticipating what adversaries might do next based on global trends.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Community, Connection, and Networking<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Beyond the technical insights, the Tech & Meet format provided the perfect environment for networking. The event brought together a diverse crowd of local IT professionals, security officers, and Howest students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    During the networking session, we had the unique opportunity to chat directly with Sandro and Niels, share real-world experiences, and discuss how different organizations are currently addressing the rapidly evolving threat landscape. For a student, having this kind of direct access to national experts is precisely what makes the Howest cybersecurity community so special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Taking it to the Next Level: The Upcoming Masterclass<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    If the introductory Tech & Meet sparked your interest to dig much deeper, Sandro and Niels aren’t stopping here. They will be hosting a comprehensive, two-day Masterclass Threat Intelligence (in Dutch) on November 24th and 25th<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While the evening session was a high-level overview, the upcoming paid masterclass will focus on practical, actionable steps to fundamentally increase the cyber resilience of your organization. I highly recommend it to any IT professionals or security officers looking to build out an in-house threat intelligence capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    Missed out?<\/strong> Keep an eye on the Howest event calendar for future Tech & Meet sessions. A huge thank you to Sandro, Niels, and the CCB for sharing their expertise with us in Bruges!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Staying ahead of modern adversaries requires more than just reactive security controls\u2014it demands proactive intelligence. On October 7th, 2025, Howest hosted an insightful Tech & Meet evening event at our Bruges Station campus that tackled this exact challenge. The event, titled “CTI: From Threats to Intelligence,” brought two premier experts from the Centre for Cybersecurity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-techmeet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96,"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions\/96"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kirandekruijter.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}