Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 51 | Page 56

CASE STUDY T he Al Majed Group was facing critical security issues with its existing antivirus product. They were unhappy with the fact that it offered no real time updates. This made it challenging to manage and protect against ransomware. The team was forced to do the time- consuming work manually. With businesses being targeted more than ever for cyberattacks, security is now a top priority for every organisation. The IT team at Al Majid Group was looking for a solution that could be controlled from a single console, secure the network and protect users from unknown malware, exploits and ransomware. After evaluating several products, the team decided to go ahead with Sophos Intercept X Advanced and Sophos XG Firewall. The challenges included: • Effectively dealing with the security challenges • Addressing hardware stability issues • Providing the IT team with daily security updates through a central source • Establishing a required, in-depth view on the online activities of employees to protect them from threats and underlying hidden risks 56 INTELLIGENTCIO • Securing devices and protecting corporate data from potential vulnerabilities with employee devices The team was particularly impressed with Sophos Synchronised Security. Synchronised Security simplifies and unifies defences with real-time intelligence sharing between the endpoints and firewall. In addition, using a single unified console to manage their endpoints from the portal itself was convenient and improved efficiency. The team was able to rapidly set up their Sophos products, which were deployed in just two weeks. Beyond the quality of the solutions themselves, having support from Sophos Partner Network Plus Data Solutions was an added advantage. Al Majed Group plans to deploy Sophos endpoint detection response (EDR) technology as well as Sophos’ encryption solution in the coming months. RIGHT NOW, WE SEE RANSOMWARE AND PHISHING AS TWO SIGNIFICANT ATTACK VECTORS. Results Instant results and performance. With the incredibly fast response times via Sophos deep learning technology, Al Majed Group’s IT team now spends less time responding to incidents. In fewer than 20 milliseconds, the model is able to extract millions of features from a file, conduct a deep analysis and determine if a file is benign or malicious. Enhanced protection. Intercept X stops zero- day malware, stealthy attacks and unknown exploit variants. This provided Al Majed Group with the protection and advanced anti- ransomware functionality it needed to detect previous unknown attacks in seconds. Strong network security. Sophos XG Firewall blocks unknown threats and exposes hidden risks with a visual dashboard, rich on-box reporting and unique risk insights. Synchronised Security within the firewall automatically responds www.intelligentcio.com