AZ Jan Portaels chose the security awareness training that builds a human firewall
Partly due to the COVID-19 crisis, cybersecurity has become a key topic at the highest levels of AZ Jan Portaels. Yet, a baseline assessment revealed that hospital staff still needed support in this area. That’s where Phished comes in—helping the organization confidently move forward on its cybersecurity roadmap.
Fact sheet
COVID-19 introduced many new rules for the daily operations at AZ Jan Portaels. However, the hospital’s cybersecurity policy was also significantly affected: as the COVID virus spread, so did computer viruses—a trend that did not go unnoticed by hospital management. Phishing prevention quickly became a higher priority.
New line of defense
"As a defensive party, you are always one step behind the hackers," says Jordy De Schoesitter, IT manager at AZ Jan Portaels. “That’s why we aim to minimize that gap by executing our cybersecurity roadmap as quickly and efficiently as possible. Our collaboration with Phished plays an important role in that effort.”
Despite the hospital’s strong focus on cybersecurity, no specific measures had been taken against the human role in cyber incidents—until recently. “We want to be as prepared as possible for a major hack or data breach,” De Schoesitter explains. “And of course, we don’t want to wait for such an incident to happen. In the past, some of our staff members were phished, but we were able to immediately remove them from the network, which kept the damage to a minimum. Still, we knew it was time to look into a more structural solution.”
Relief
A key requirement for any hospital is to remain unburdened—and that’s where Phished came in. “One of the main advantages for us was the automation capabilities,” says De Schoesitter. “We no longer waste time setting up large-scale manual campaigns. Now, we can fully focus on prevention and awareness, knowing the technical side is completely handled.”
“Everyone who joins our hospital receives a comprehensive onboarding that covers both the general workings of our institution and a basic cybersecurity course. But all things considered, that’s a lot of information to take in at once. We needed a structured approach that could provide ongoing training. The fact that this process is fully automated is a win for everyone.”
We needed a structured approach to provide our staff with regular training—and the fact that it’s fully automated benefits everyone.
Regular training
“One of the main concerns among our employees was that the training would take up too much of their time,” De Schoesitter tells us. “But those concerns quickly faded. We found a good balance in terms of both the frequency and difficulty of the training and simulations. The feedback has been almost unanimously positive: people recognize the value and appreciate that they're learning something they can also apply in their personal lives.”
“In the meantime, our results have improved significantly. Being able to show people that it actually works is a great motivator. And recently, we’ve seen—among others in several hospitals—that this kind of training is truly essential.”
Conclusion
Innovation is thriving at Jan Portaels General Hospital, with cybersecurity playing a key role. Thanks to the ease of use and automation offered by Phished, phishing prevention has become a central part of the hospital’s digitalization strategy—sooner than initially planned, driven in part by recent, real-world events.
The platform’s ability to take the burden off internal teams allows the IT department at AZ Jan Portaels to focus its efforts more effectively, accelerating and enhancing the hospital’s overall digital security.
