From industrial safety to digital trust: inside Equans Digital

Equans Digital is digital first, but it stays deeply rooted in the real world of operations. “We’re digital-first, yes but always operational by nature,” says Hoeyberghs. “We’ve spent decades in automation, energy and industry, so we understand what really happens on the shop floor. We understand the constraints and the risks.”

That mindset shapes how the company approaches cybersecurity. “Cybersecurity in an OT environment is completely different from IT,” he says. “In IT, you can just reboot the system. In OT, that’s often impossible because you might be shutting down an entire production line.”

At Equans Digital, security isn’t something you add afterwards. “Availability is everything in OT. If your production stops, your company stops. That’s why we approach cybersecurity as part of reliability and safety, not as an isolated discipline.”

He puts it even more simply: “A firewall doesn’t make you secure. You need to understand the process: where the data comes from, how it’s used, and what could go wrong if it’s manipulated. You can only secure what you understand.”

That link between safety, reliability, and digital trust is exactly where Vinçotte and Equans Digital meet. “Industrial cybersecurity is the next logical step in the story of safety,” says Hoeyberghs. “It’s the same mission, but with new tools.”

The upcoming NIS2 directive has put cybersecurity on the agenda of many industrial companies. For Hoeyberghs, that’s a positive development but not the end goal. “NIS2 is important because it creates awareness and pressure at management level,” he says. “But compliance is not resilience. You can tick all the boxes and still be vulnerable.”

He sees the real challenge in translating regulation into behaviour. “Regulation tells you what to do, not how to do it. The ‘how’ depends on your people, your culture, your specific context. Cybersecurity only works if people feel responsible. Not because they have to, but because they want to.”

That’s why Equans Digital invests heavily in awareness and training. “You don’t change behaviour with PowerPoints,” Hoeyberghs says. “You change it when people understand why it matters.”

He describes how Equans Digital organizes phishing campaigns and scenario exercises to build that awareness. “We do phishing campaigns, but we don’t use them to blame people. We use them to talk, to learn, and to build awareness. It’s not about punishment, it’s about trust. People should feel safe to report incidents even if they caused them.”

That mindset reflects a broader cultural shift in the industry. “In the past, people didn’t dare to speak up when something went wrong,” he says. “Now, we see that the companies who learn fastest are the ones where employees can talk openly about mistakes.”

One of Equans Digital biggest strengths is its ability to bridge the gap between IT and OT, two worlds that often speak different languages. “They often don’t speak the same language,” Hoeyberghs explains. “The IT manager might say: ‘Just patch it.’ But in production, you can’t just stop a 24/7 process to install an update.”

Equans Digital acts as a translator between both. “We make IT understand what’s critical in OT and we help OT people see why cybersecurity matters for their work,” he says. “Once both sides realise they’re working toward the same goal — keeping the business running safely — the collaboration starts to flow.”

The company applies frameworks such as IEC 62443, which adapt cybersecurity principles to industrial realities. “Our job is to translate theory into workable solutions,” Hoeyberghs says. “We design controls that make sense for real processes, not just for policies.”

That bridge between the digital and physical world is where trust begins. “For us, OT cybersecurity is the next logical step in the story of safety,” he repeats. “The principle is the same: prevent incidents, protect people, and keep operations running.”

For decades, Equans has been a trusted partner for physical safety. Today, that same mindset applies to the digital world. “In the past, safety meant protecting people from physical harm,” Hoeyberghs says. “Now it also means protecting them from digital harm. The line between safety and cybersecurity is disappearing. A cyber incident can have the same impact as a mechanical failure.”

That shift doesn’t mean abandoning traditional safety principles but quite the opposite. “We’re not reinventing safety,” he says. “We’re extending it into the digital world. The same discipline and prevention mindset still apply.”

That continuity gives Equans Digital credibility in conversations that bridge old and new risks. It’s also where Kiwa sees a natural alignment: both organisations focus on trust as the foundation of safety, whether physical or digital.

Ultimately, Hoeyberghs sees OT cybersecurity not as a technical expense, but as a prerequisite for innovation. “Our goal is simple: make technology work for our clients, safely, efficiently, and with confidence,” he says. “If clients don’t trust their systems, they won’t innovate. That’s why our real job is to create digital confidence.”

That conviction lies at the heart of Kiwa's Trust in Digital initiative — helping organizations turn resilience into reliability, and trust into progress.