PQR wins VNG tender for Monitoring & Response Services
PQR, Rustmakers in IT, has won the tender from the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG) to provide Monitoring & Response Services. This makes PQR one of six suppliers that municipalities can choose to increase their digital resilience and detect and combat threats more effectively.
The award is in the context of GGI, through which VNG aims to achieve a common municipal infrastructure. GGI-Veilig, the part to which the award relates, includes services focused on information security.
Powerful in quality and communication
PQR was assessed positively in the award for the strength and clarity of their process design, the scalability of their solutions and the communication model used, which provides municipalities with clear information about incidents and lessons learned. Thereby, incident and threat information (partly based on their own research of the threat landscape) is also exchanged with the Information Security Service (IBD) to strengthen cooperation in the field of information security. In addition, it is a plus that PQR avoids vendor lock-in with specific software vendors in their approach.
"Municipalities must continue to digitize in order to continue to serve their residents well. This must be done safely and efficiently," said Marijke Kasius, CEO at PQR. "We know that implementing SIEM/SOC can be time-consuming. That's why we have developed a method to carry out the implementation quickly and easily. This way, we offer municipalities the space and peace of mind to focus on their actual work."
Fast and effective SOC and SIEM
For member municipalities, PQR will continuously monitor potential threats to the IT environment from its own Security Operations Center (SOC). Threats and incidents are thoroughly analyzed and remedied immediately. In addition, PQR provides advice to municipalities to prevent future incidents. A dedicated Security Officer acts as a direct point of contact in this regard.
For monitoring and analysis, PQR deploys advanced Security Information & Event Management (SIEM) tooling. The SIEM tooling gathers logs from all on-premises and cloud environments and prioritizes them for checks by PQR's security experts.
