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Project Title: Incident response planning and testing for Critical Production Facilities

Objective

The goal of this assignment is to support the security office in creating robust incident response plans for the organization’s most critical production facilities. These facilities play a pivotal role in maintaining business continuity, and having effective incident response plans is essential to minimize downtime and protect against potential disruptions.

Scope

The scope will be primarily on the incident response plans and the effective testing of these for the central IT department (Vion IM&T BV/GmbH) and for 2 critical production facilities of Vion Food Group.

Desk Research

The student will conduct thorough research on best practices, industry standards, and case studies related to incident response planning.

Topics may include risk assessment, business impact analysis, recovery strategies, and regulatory compliance.

Interviews and Analysis

The student will engage with relevant stakeholders, including IT personnel, facility managers, and business leaders.

Through interviews and discussions, they will gather insights into the specific needs and challenges of each critical production facility.

A comprehensive analysis will identify vulnerabilities, dependencies, and critical systems.

Systematic Approach

The student will develop a structured methodology for creating incident response plans.

This approach may involve risk prioritization, resource allocation, testing procedures, and documentation standards.

Plan Development

Based on the research and analysis, the student will create customized incident response plans for each selected facility.

Plans should address scenarios such as cyberattacks, natural disasters (e.g., floods, earthquakes), hardware failures, and power outages.

Consideration should be given to data backup strategies, communication protocols, and alternative work arrangements.

Along with the delivered incident response plans a program for continuous business attention on IT recovery should be developed based on the latest theory on IT and business continuity. With this program Vion should be able to maintain the Incident response plans and further build up from this towards a high-class business continuity organisation in the future.

Prerequisites for the Student

The student is required to be in their final phase of study.

Familiarity with IT and business technology is essential and knowledge of the difference between IT and OT is preferred.

Ideally knowledge of cybersecurity principles would be of added value.

The student should be able to work both individually and in team collaborations.

This project offers an excellent opportunity for the student to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world scenarios while contributing to the organization’s resilience.

Guidance and support

This assignment falls under the responsibility of the security office who will also provide day-to-day guidance for the student.

Timeline

The assignment spans 6 months, starting in September 2024.

The student will collaborate closely with the IT team throughout the process.

About Vion Food Group and Vion IM&T B.V.

Vion is an international producer of meat, meat products and plant based alternatives with production locations in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. We supply customers in our home markets of the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium, as well as in other countries all over the world. Our headquarters are located in Boxtel, the Netherlands.

We have approximately 10000 employees (internal and external) working in our factories and offices around the world.

Vion IM&T B.V. is the central IT organization of the Vion Food Group and providing Information Management & Technology (IM&T) services to all Vion locations and entities and associated employees.

The main IT services are provided by the department Global Business Services and Global Infrastructure Services, supported by Service & Demand Management, Projects & Changes and central staff teams such as the security office.

The security office consists of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and a junior CISO. At all production locations coordinators for privacy & security are assigned and together with the security office, this team is responsible to maintain the desired level of privacy & security.

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