How Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) are Used by Softworx, PenChecks Trust, Flex, CNA, and Blackstone: Case Studies

As cyberthreats rise, companies are deploying next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) to help protect their networks against cyberthreats, such as malware, viruses, and data breaches.

Cybercriminals are also using more sophisticated methods to assault networks and the cloud while also targeting the abundance of remote workers.

See below for five case studies on how organizations in various industries are using next-generation firewalls to protect their employees, customers, and data:

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1. Tristel

The health care company Tristel is a leader in the infection prevention market. Their recent rapid growth saw not only the need for new offices, but also the need for better security.

Because Tristel supports multiple security systems, its security budget was stretched thin. In addition, systems could not communicate with one another, and the company relied exclusively on Microsoft Business Premium, limiting its security reach.

Tristel enlisted Softwerx to help mitigate security gaps while preventing future attacks. Softwerx employed Microsoft technologies to equip Tristel with a comprehensive security portfolio, including Microsoft Secure365 from Softwerx for around-the-clock next-gen security support.

Industry: Health care

NGFW solution: Softwerx and Microsoft Secure365

Outcomes:

• Continuous eyes-on security
• Streamlined cybersecurity workflow
• Time and money savings by eliminating portals
• A comprehensive security portfolio

2. PenChecks Trust

PenChecks Trust recently turned to CrowdStrike to help maintain security across their data center and public cloud environments. The company recognizes that financial and banking services are ranked the highest for being targeted by cybercriminals.

PenChecks Trust was also having issues with how to protect their data in the face of rapid growth. The financial company was using AWS and Azure when it contacted CrowdStrike, wanting to both secure its cloud data and support their expectations of expansion.

“We utilize both Falcon Insight … and Falcon Horizon cloud security posture management … . As for Falcon Horizon, understanding cloud misconfiguration has been key to our move to Amazon Web Services and catching misconfigurations on the fly,” says Kevin Smallen, CISO, PenChecks Trust.

PenChecks sought CrowdStrike over competitors due to their ability to integrate with AWS.

Industry: Finance

NGFW solution: CrowdStrike

Outcomes:

• Delivered faster performance and reduced time to deploy workload protection
• Accelerated detection and remediation of vulnerabilities in the continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline
• Met regulatory compliance standards
• Reduced complexity via a single platform

See more: Top Cybersecurity Solutions

3. Flex

Flex is a manufacturing service for customers across many industries. As a result, the company required advanced cybersecurity to protect their digital assets and segment secure networks associated with their customers.

The company deployed the Palo Alto Networks network security platform to meet these requirements.

Flex wanted a unified approach to defend against cyberthreats and a secure network that could extend strong security ethics to remote workers. The solution they sought with Palo Alto Networks Prisma allows remote and on-site workers safe access and automated responses to security threats.

Industry: Manufacturing

NGFW solutions: Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access and Cortex XSOAR solutions

Outcomes:

• Consistent security policies on the network and for remote users
• Automated correlation of threat information for faster investigations and response
• Malware is prevented from spreading from home users to the corporate network

4. CNA

CNA is a leader in business insurance solutions focusing on small and mid-size businesses (SMBs). They were spending excessive time digging through alerts, trying to separate the noise from the priorities. CNA chose to incorporate Gigamon ThreatINSIGHT, which can be integrated with the partner platform StrikeReady.

CNA’s team relied heavily on StrikeReady, a cloud-based security automation platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to provide defenders with the ability to analyze, reason, guide, and resolve issues faster. However, even with StrikeReady in place, the company spent excessive time in the weeds. In addition, they were facing challenges keeping a talented security team on board.

Before evaluating new security solutions, CNA had an idea of what they needed and saw that Gigamon ThreatINSIGHT could help them with their needs, while also integrating with StrikeReady.

Industry: Insurance

NGFW: Gigamon ThreatINSIGHT

Outcomes:

• Automated threat detection and prioritized alerting
• Seamless integration of enriched intelligence into the existing security stack
• Reduced time spent on investigations
• Improved operational efficiency, eliminating the need for more staff
• Data retention to aid future investigations

5. Blackstone

Blackstone, a leading alternative asset manager, recently worked with Vectra while maintaining visibility into Microsoft 365 (M365) data to keep their organization secure. However, the company knows that one of the reasons they are so successful lies in their ability to use their own technology to drive business — with next-gen cybersecurity.

Even accelerating a secure M365 migration, when faced with a massive cross-functional deployment, the company must ensure comprehensive M365 security posture management and controls without interfering with the existing migration timeline.

Industry: Financial services

Wireless networking solutions: Vectra

Outcomes:

• Addition of over 50 new threat detections against the organization’s Office 365 environment in one day
• Reduction of alert volume by 90%
• Rely on ability to detect threats that breach the prevention layer

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