Case Studies

Accident Advice Helpline

2013-03-07T20:05:00Z

Industry: Legal

Location: United Kingdom

Products Used: Web Filter

Claim Specialist Increases Productivity With Websense^® Web Filter

By using Websense, we estimate our non-productive Web usage has been reduced by 50 percent. We’ve saved around 125 working hours a day — and that’s 800 hours a week in terms of improved productivity.

Darren Taylor, IT Manager, Accident Advice Helpline

Accident Advice Helpline (AAH) is the U.K.’s largest compensation claim specialist, providing a service for thousands of people who want to claim compensation for injuries incurred as a result of a third-party negligence to include road traffic accidents, accidents at work or accidents in public places.

AAH processes in excess of 12,000 claims a year from members of the public. AAH employs 150 staff, two-thirds of whom are call-centre operatives.

The Problem

AAH’s business aims to be the first organisation called by those who have suffered accidents. Once a call has been assessed, AAH vigorously screens the details before offering the claim to one of its panel of solicitors.

Managers suspected call-centre staff were surfing the Web or using “chat” or “community” sites such as Facebook or MySpace during the working day rather than processing accident claims. The IT department was unable to manage this and ensure sensible levels of Web access for AAH’s employees.

As AAH’s IT manager, Darren Taylor is answerable to the company’s directors for all aspects of IT that support the company’s business operations. He was conscious of AAH’s need for productive call-centre operations and needed to gauge the access needed by the staff — plus managers, accounts and marketing personnel, to IT applications, including notably, Internet access.

“Predominantly, we’re a call-centre. Users come in, work their shift, using a database, which is all they need to use,” said Taylor. “They don’t need Internet access to do their jobs, so it’s very much a case of understanding and managing Web access to ensure sensible and safe levels of use. If necessary, AAH can restrict Internet access at a lower level or block access to inappropriate sites,” Taylor added.

This inability to understand and address Web misuse was significantly lowering AAH’s productivity, not to mention undermining its investment in improved bandwidth.

AAH asked The Internet Group, its ongoing IT services supplier, to investigate a suitable solution that would enable it to manage Internet access and prevent access to specific websites, covering areas such as travel, entertainment, gambling, adult content, and jobs.

The Solution

Taylor needed a tool that would enable him to gauge inappropriate Web use, and then restrict access to specific applications at various levels. Although his managers were aware call-centre staff was misusing the Web during working hours, he couldn’t prove it.

The Internet Group recommended Websense^® Web Filter to track website use and allowed AAH to prevent unauthorised or unnecessary Internet access to specific website categories. According to The Internet Group’s director Mitchell Feldman, using Websense ensures problems “find” Taylor, rather than him having to go and hunt them down. It also aids AAH with regulatory compliance. Websense ensures AAH has an audit trail in place while managing staff access to non work-related websites and applications. AAH is rigorous in its compliance regime, because it has to be.

“AAH is extremely IT-savvy and its investment in IT connectivity has been huge. But when staff are accessing websites using streaming media, such as YouTube, and Facebook, they are literally draining its vital bandwidth resources. AAH is conversing with parties such as solicitors, so it is vital that it has a high quality of service in place,” says Feldman.

The Results

Websense enables AAH to categorise the type of websites visited, from travel and government, to job-related sites, news or community sites. AAH’s IT department can then decide which of those sites are productive or non-productive for employees, and thus where access should be prevented. This is an important issue for AAH because, although its call-centre staff work seven days a week, some of AAH’s managers do not and they are reliant on weekend call-centre staff focusing on doing their job, not surfing the Web.

“Websense enabled us to automate our Web use policy so we can easily manage Internet access and ensure that everyone is using the Web sensibly,” said Taylor. “More than giving us an insight into what our staff are doing with the Internet, it also shows how the average user works their way around a PC, trying things that they really don’t need to do, and so shouldn’t have access to.”

The long-term misuse of applications like Instant Messaging (IM) are Taylor’s biggest concern, together with peer-to-peer applications, which encourages the illicit delivery of spyware. “The beauty of Websense is we can see what people are doing then and there and have the ability to block the specifics in an instant if we have any concerns about security or bandwidth.”

Using Websense helps the company to maximise the service benefits from its IT investment in improved bandwidth. “By using Websense, we estimate our non-productive web usage has been reduced by 50 percent. We’ve saved around 125 working hours a day — and that’s 800 hours a week in terms of improved productivity.”

“Looking ahead, we’re planning to make some significant changes to our infrastructure,” said Taylor. “As part of that, Websense will be moving forward with us and we’re looking to upgrade to version 7 soon,” said Taylor.

Click here for free evaluations of Websense solutions.

ACPL Systems Pvt. Ltd.

2011-02-06T19:16:00Z

Industry: IT

Location: India

Products Used: Hosted Email Security

ACPL Secures Email and Eliminates Spam With Websense^® Hosted Email Security

Websense is a professional security company with the appropriate standards and policies in place to ensure our email is protected. This boosted our confidence when taking the decision to turn to hosted.

Sukhpal Singh Sandhu, Head of Information Assurance, ACPL Systems Pvt. Ltd

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Dehli, India, ACPL Systems Pvt. Ltd. has grown to become a leading specialist provider of information security products in India. Offering a wide-range of security products, the organisation also provides consultancy and training.

The Problem

With levels of spam and malicious emails on the rise, ACPL was investing increasing amounts of time and valuable skill on managing its email traffic and was repeatedly struggling with high volumes of spam, false positive and latency in the system.

“Although we do have expertise in the security marketplace, it became apparent that using this knowledge to manage our in-house solution was not only a time but a cost burden too,” says Sukhpal Singh Sandhu, Head of Information Assurance, ACPL. “We realised that by considering a hosted solution we would be able to divert this focus to other areas of our business and customers.”

ACPL’s on-premise solution required high levels of self-maintenance, upgrades, hardware and patch updates. “Thousands of spam emails were continuing to hit the company’s email gateway which was having a detrimental effect on our network bandwidth and inconveniencing our users,” says Sandhu.

The Solution

Following a detailed review of possible solutions, ACPL took the decision to implement Websense^® Hosted Email Security. The company wanted to reduce complexity, maintenance and costs, and ACPL was confident that a hosted solution could offer all three.

Delivering superior service

One of the key factors in ACPL’s decision was the Websense approach to service. “Websense offered a service level agreement (SLA) of 99.99 percent availability, 100 percent on viruses and 99 percent on spam protection. This was important to us because although we wanted a cost-effective solution, we also wanted our email service to be powerful and professional,” says Sandhu.

In addition, Websense has been able to take ACPL’s overhead of managing email security internally and deliver improved resilience and ease-of-use through its ability to eliminate spam and malware before it reaches the company network. The hosted deployment model provides centralized security with built-in redundancy, failover and business continuity while easing administration and optimising network operating and capacity planning costs.

Meeting standards

The security of its outbound emails was also important to ACPL. With often sensitive and confidential information being sent, it was vital that its hosted provider was able to meet its stringent standards.

“Being aware of how important the security of our emails is to us was one of the main criteria during solution evaluation,” says Sandhu. “Websense is a professional security company with the appropriate standards and policies in place to ensure our email is protected. This boosted our confidence when taking the decision to turn to hosted.”

Maintaining control

While ACPL wanted to reduce the cost and complexity of its email security, it was important to the organisation that it retained control of its email security. With Websense it has been able to maintain 24/7 access, have flexibility in defining policies and deliver transparency to the business through reporting.

Protecting against threats

As blended email and Web threats continue to become more sophisticated, protecting end-users from attacks is becoming more challenging for organisations.

ACPL and its business processes were very much dependent on email so maintaining a secure and reliable email service is vital. Websense has been critical in ACPL protecting its network from dangerous spam while also enable optimum productivity.

Utilising the Websense ThreatSeeker^® Network, Websense Hosted Email Security protects organisations from spam, Web 2.0 threats and the converged security threats found in more than 90 percent of unwanted mail.

The Websense ThreatSeeker Network uses more than 50 million real-time data collecting systems that continuously monitor Internet content — including new and dynamic content — for emerging threats. As a result, Websense is able to adapt to the rapidly changing Internet at speeds not possible by traditional security and basic email filtering solutions.

The Results

Through the implementation of Websense, ACPL has lifted the administrative burden of managing its email security. The company is saving as much as 60 percent of its costs since moving to a hosted solution. The organisation has also virtually eradicated spam which has significantly improved its network bandwidth and resulted in an improved user experience.

Click here for free evaluations of Websense solutions.

ACS

2011-02-05T15:52:00Z

Industry: IT

Location: United States

Products Used: Web Security Gateway

ACS, a Xerox company, faced a dilemma: social media had become a valuable business tool, but it also came fraught with security risks. David McLaughlin, the manager of boundary services, explains how Websense® Web Security Gateway increased the company’s visibility into data and enabled the use of business-empowering tools like Facebook. Also hear how the Websense team responded quickly to ACS requests, guiding the company through a seamless transition to a unified security deployment.

Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union

2011-02-04T19:37:00Z

Industry: Financial

Location: United States

Products Used: Web Security Gateway, Data Security Suite

Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union believes that access to the social Web is a critical aspect of everyday business. It also believes that protecting employee and client information is essential. Listen to Philip Romero, senior security architect at Addison Avenue, as he shares how the company is using Websense^® Data Security Suite and Websense Web Security Gateway to prevent the loss of essential data and increase the productivity of its employees. The organization is also finding the unified console a “productivity enabler” by helping to reduce the response time needed to investigate activities and by reducing the number of interfaces it must go through.

Allied Cash

2011-02-03T20:18:00Z

Industry: Financial

Location: United States

Products Used: Hosted Web Security

Allied Cash Advance Keeps Money Moving Safely

My IT team couldn’t keep up with all the malware, viruses, and spyware tying up our remote computers, and we were unable to focus on other critical projects. With Websense^® Hosted Web Security, my team and I get to go home on time now and then!

Christian Alvarez, Database Administrator, Allied Cash Advance

Founded in 1999 with a single branch in Northern California, Allied Cash Advance® has grown into one of the nation’s largest providers of payday advances, with more than 250 branches in 12 states. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, Allied Cash Advance employs more than 700 team members.

The mission of Allied Cash Advance is to be the premier provider of payday advances in America. It prides itself in being a results-oriented company that provides superior service and support to its customers, team members, and communities. Dealing with critical financial issues requires computer systems that can assure security, confidentiality, and access.

The Problem

The payday advance business requires a good deal of time on the Internet to verify critical financial information. However, as employees at Allied Cash Advance visited popular websites such as social networking sites and search engines, they were unknowingly opening the door to viruses, phishing attacks, spyware and malware — and their computers were showing the strain. Allied Cash Advance deals with large amounts of personal data and has a special need for security in order to protect its essential information. Falling victim to phishing attacks or becoming infected with software that can read key strokes could cause considerable damage to the company.

Christian Alvarez, database administrator for Allied Cash Advance, suspected that employee time spent on risky sites was causing productivity and security issues. He was tasked to lead an initiative to improve Web security, but managing 700 computers in 257 branches — many with varying degrees of Internet Connectivity — was not a simple task. The IT department often spent many hours trying to remotely clean infected machines, often without success.

After compiling a select group of websites necessary for business purposes, Alvarez decided to filter unauthorized sites that were inappropriate for the workplace and provided a conduit to viruses and malware. He first attempted to manage the problem by using the limited capabilities of his firewall, but this proved difficult because of the many remote branches.

The Solution

Seeking an economical solution, Alvarez talked to other vendors and discovered Websense^® Hosted Web Security.

“I was looking for a product that I could control centrally, but that would also protect the computers in all of our branches—without having to install something on each machine,” he states. “With Websense Hosted Web Security, when I make a change, it’s immediately effective throughout whichever branches I choose.”

Websense Hosted Web Security provides centralized Web malware protection and granular Web filtering. The hosted deployment model provides centralized policy management for any type of environment, including those with remote locations and mobile laptops. Websense Hosted Web Security is a complete solution that can be layered with existing on-premise security to provide additional Web malware protection. Guaranteed by industry-leading service level agreements, Websense Hosted Web Security eliminates the complexity and uncertainty of managing Web-based threats, while simplifying policy administration for all users within the organization.

Alvarez ran a demo version of Websense Hosted Web Security at a few locations and, using the reporting features, discovered how much time employees were spending on non-work-related sites and which sites were most visited. Rather than wrestle with the diverse requirements of the various ISPs he relied on, Alvarez created global and regional policies within Websense Hosted Web Security, then applied them to his remote computers. When Alvarez makes adjustments, all are automatically updated.

The Results

Increased productivity at remote branches

With Websense Hosted Web Security, Alvarez discovered that many employees were spending their work time on social networking or gaming sites. Specifically, the Websense reports showed multiple attempts to visit a particular gaming site at one business branch. “At first the team members were surprised to learn they could no longer visit those sites, but pretty quickly the culture changed and they began to focus more on their work,” says Alvarez. “The team has become more productive.”

Reduced exposure to malware, spyware, phishing attacks and viruses

With the large amount of personal and financial data that Allied Cash Advance manages, it’s critical that the company protect its networks and data. With Websense Hosted Web Security, employees are prevented from visiting websites that are likely to download toolbars and other elements that often hide malware and spyware.

On-demand solution eases it burden

Before implementing Websense Hosted Web Security, Alvarez and his team spent countless hours cleaning or replacing infected computers every week. To guarantee that no location was ever without a computer for long, the IT team found they were often pulled away from important projects. “My IT team couldn’t keep up with all the malware, viruses, and spyware tying up our remote computers and we were unable to focus on other critical projects,” says Alvarez. “With Websense Hosted Web Security, my team and I can go home on time now and then!”

Click here for free evaluations of Websense solutions.

Alphawest

2011-02-03T01:56:00Z

Industry: Information Technology

Location: Sydney, Australia

Products Used: TRITON™ Security Gateway Anywhere

Alphawest Keeps Customer Data Protected with Websense® TRITON™ Solutions

Adopting a hybrid web and email security solution from Websense has given us the best of both worlds. It delivers great IT management efficiencies, because a single management console configures both the cloud services and our internal appliances.

Nick Watts
Head of IT, Alphawest

Introduction

With a history dating back to the mid-1980s, a period of public listing on the Australian Stock Exchange and the 2005 high-profile acquisition by SingTel Optus, Alphawest is one of Australia’s best known ICT support organisations. Headquartered in Sydney, it provides systems development and provisioning, managed and other support services to clients across Australia.

A key factor in the company’s success has been its ability to adapt over the years to keep pace with changing technologies, business practices and customer expectations. One recent example of this can be seen in Alphawest’s increasing commitment to ensuring customer security.

Security as a “must have”

Nick Watts, Head of IT at Alphawest explains, “For customers doing business with Alphawest, security is becoming a “must have.” The protection of confidential information is often now a contractual requirement, and it’s no longer good enough to simply talk the talk. Our customers are demanding real information assurance.”

The essential content security requirements at Alphawest include protection of sensitive client and partner emails; protection against malware distributed by email or websites; protection against security compromises introduced via hosted applications and the cloud; and the ability to minimise the potential for intentional and unintentional data leakage.

“Like many companies, we are increasingly leveraging software-as-a-service,” notes Mr Watts. “About 25 percent of our business systems are now hosted outside our network perimeter, so it’s critical that we’re able to protect ourselves from a compromise in any of those services that might affect our business internally. The CIO forums are full of talk about the security of data in the cloud, but it’s also important to consider the implications of malware in the cloud finding its way back into your network. It’s what’s in the traffic that matters more than where it came from.”

Unified, hybrid security

To meet the company’s stringent security needs, Alphawest has been using Websense® TRITON™ Security Gateway Anywhere, a unified, intelligent, analytic solution that combines web, email and data security within a single management console, since 2012. The solution supplements traditional reputation-based filtering needs with intelligent content inspection and advanced analytics.

“Maintaining separate solutions is inefficient and, frankly, frustrating,” Watts says. “Adopting a hybrid web and email security solution from Websense has given us the best of both worlds. It delivers great IT management efficiencies, because a single management console configures both the cloud services and our internal appliances. So you do everything once, and you’re protected twice. But at the same time, it ensures we maintain those multiple lines of defence. It’s redundancy without replication.”

Leveraging the cloud as Alphawest’s first line of defence also helps ensure that the vast majority of malicious content never reaches the company network. For example, with a significant amount of unsolicited email now stopped in the cloud, the overall amount of email entering the company network has been reduced by around 80 percent. Given Alphawest processes close to a million inbound emails every week, this represents a considerable bandwidth saving.

The need for consistency

When planning Alphawest’s web security strategy, the IT department decided to first focus on building a good wall, and then ensure that everything else was placed behind it.

“Any device on our network connects to the Internet through our TRITON Web Security Gateway. PCs, Macs, iPhones, iPads, Androids, our BlackBerry fleet and anything else,” Watts confirms. “This significantly increases our security by ensuring there is a consistent level of protection across all users and all devices. Users working from home connect via VPN, so they also sit behind the exact same web and email protection they would have if they were right here in the office.”

The approach has helped to reduce complexity for the IT team, removing any need to manage separate Internet gateway solutions for BlackBerrys, corporate devices, and nonstandard devices.

As a proactive measure, Alphawest is using the gateway DLP elements within Web Security Gateway to enable the company to monitor, and if necessary block, sensitive data from inadvertently leaving the business. “Because Websense TruWeb DLP™ is so tightly integrated with the email and web security components, it is very easy to apply pre-defined DLP policies across all our gateways and devices,” Watts acknowledges.

Security and efficiency

Watts says, “The good news is, the security and business advantages of the TRITON solution haven’t come at the expense of my team’s productivity. We’re constantly being asked to do more with the same resources, and this is a great example of technology making that possible.”

One efficiency gain has come from empowering end users to release their own captured email, thus reducing the number of end users who need to contact the service desk with queries over captured emails.

However, Watts believes the biggest efficiency gain is due to the simplicity that comes from consolidating content security management within a single solution. “Web, email and DLP—as well as the cloud and in-house mechanisms — can all be managed from the one console. This gives us the best possible chance to map our organisation’s security policy into an effective and holistic approach to security. Even though we have four Websense TRITON appliances across the country, there is no danger of inconsistency, because one set of policies, on one console, controls web, email, and DLP, across all sites, all users, and all devices on our network. And we’ve got defence-in-depth because it integrates seamlessly with the cloud.”

“We have significantly reduced complexity, increased our security, and given ourselves a level of visibility we’ve never had before. It’s easy for any CIO to see that this is good for IT, and great for business,” Watts smiles.

Amadori

2011-02-02T20:00:00Z

Industry: Manufacturing

Location: Italy

Products Used: Web Saecurity Gateway

Cloud Email Security

Amadori Improves Security With Websense^® Web Security Gateway and Websense Cloud Email Security

By choosing Websense to provide our security solutions we have avoided the management costs and difficulties which often arise from using multiple vendors.

Gianluca Giovannetti, Chief Information Officer, Gruppo Amadori

Amadori is an innovative and modern food company, specializing in meat-based dishes. Established in San Vittore di Cesena, Italy, over forty years ago, the group, has 16 factories, 33 branches and employs over 6500 workers. The success of Amadori is based on the way in which it manages the entire integrated production chain including farms, feed producers, hatcheries and food processing plants.

The Problem

With the increasing adoption of Web 2.0, Amadori recognised that while it could present strong opportunities and deliver new and innovative ways to communicate both internally and externally there was the need to better manage the advanced threats it presented.

As a result, Amadori decided to review the security of its IT infrastructure in order to better protect the organisation. “Although we believed our security was at a satisfactory level we felt that there was still need for improvement,” says Gianluca Giovannetti, Chief Information Officer, Amadori.

Another area of concern for Amadori was the necessity to keep its employees secure, safe and productive wherever they were working. The organisation had seen an increase in the number of users working off-site, sometimes in public areas, with little protection.

In addition, despite having adequate email security, Amadori was managing increasing amounts of spam. Supporting over 6,500 users, the IT department had expressed concern at the amount of time it was spending dealing with help desk calls. The organisation was keen to free IT resource to focus on more pressing projects and activities.

The Solution

Following a decision to undertake a full review of its security, Amadori’s IT department began a project which reviewed three possible vendors. It had several goals it wanted to achieve across both Web and email including improving its protection against the new wave of malicious blended threats it was facing and greater overall email security. The ultimate aim was to enable the IT department to become more efficient and dynamic.

“We took the decision to trial Websense because Gartner had stated it as a leader in its field,” says Francesco Fabbri, Chief Security Officer, Amadori Group. “The testing lasted for one month across both Web and cloud email and Websense demonstrated its capabilities immediately.”

Following the trial of the different vendors, Amadori took the decision to implement Websense Web Security Gateway™, with the Websense V10000 appliance, and Websense Cloud Email Security. By utilising one supplier for all its key needs has enabled the organisation to consolidate its security – reducing the total cost of ownership and administrative overheads.

Protecting with Real-time

Websense Web Security Gateway protects organisations against malicious mobile code, spyware, phishing attacks, botnets, and other threats. Incorporating the intelligence of the Websense ThreatSeeker™ Network which scans the Internet and analyses one billion pieces of content daily to proactively search for threats, Websense Web Security Gateway blocks known and new threats within minutes of discovery.

The Websense V10000 appliance streamlines deployment, management and reporting for Websense solutions. It also consolidates network infrastructure, reducing costs and providing an extensible security platform.

In addition, with a high volume of user-generated content in the Web 2.0 world, having a security solution which is able to review and classify this is imperative. In the simplest of terms, Amadori is now has the capability to analyse Web sites in real-time which allows the organisation to let in the good information while also keeping out the bad and inappropriate information.

Improving Security and Reducing Management

As part of its review, Amadori decided to implement Websense Cloud Email Security to eliminate spam and malware before it even reached the company network. The organisation had previously been spending large amounts of time trying to manage its email security.

The cloud deployment model provides centralised security with built-in redundancy, failover and business continuity while easing administration and optimising network operating and capacity planning costs. Guaranteed by industry-leading service level agreements, Websense Cloud Email Security provides the highest possible degree of protection.

In addition, utilising the Websense ThreatSeeker Network, Websense Cloud Email Security protects organisations from spam, Web 2.0 threats and the converged security threats found in more than 90% of unwanted mail.

The Websense ThreatSeeker Network uses more than 50 million real-time data collecting systems that continuously monitor Internet content – including new and dynamic content – for emerging threats. As a result, Websense is able to adapt to the rapidly changing Internet at speeds not possible by traditional security and basic email filtering solutions.

Ease of deployment

A major consideration for Amadori was an easy and straightforward transition. Taking the decision to consolidate its Web and email security with Websense enabled the planning and management of this to be very flexible.

“The deployment was simple,” says Fabbri. “Thanks to our own internal resources, the Websense team and our support partner, VEM Sistemi SpA, it was possible to ensure that the entire process was very smooth. It was of definite benefit that we were able to implement a stage at a time.”

The Results

With Websense, Amadori has seen an immediate impact across several different areas of its security.

A key focus for the organisation was being able to fully protect its users both in and outside the company network. With Websense it has been possible to provide powerful protection from phising sites, spyware and malicious code for office and remote workers.

Amadori has seen a significant reduction in the management and workload associated with its Web and email security. “Our previous solution was not powerful enough. Since we have implemented the Websense solutions we have been able to increase internal and external collaboration with the safe use of Web 2.0. The difference is that the management of these projects is now much more effective, quick and safe. The dynamic analysis and categorisation of sites is essential with Web 2.0,” said Giovanetti.

With Websense the organisation has also been able to reduce the significant email security workload the IT department was battling. “We have implemented a system which means that rather than the helpdesk needing to check emails which have been blocked, the user receives a daily report of emails quarantined. In addition, attachments can be downloaded via link which has enabled us to free up bandwidth,” says Fabbri.

Finally, Amadori is reaping the benefits of working with one supplier and consolidating its security. “We are able to control costs and plan more efficiently by using Websense solutions,” concludes Giovannetti. “By choosing Websense to provide our security solutions we have avoided the management costs and difficulties which often arise from using multiple vendors.”

Click here for free evaluations of Websense solutions.

Amadori (Italiano)

2011-02-02T20:00:00Z

Settore: Alimentare

Posizione: Italia

Soluzioni: Web Security Gateway

Cloud Email Security

Amadori migliora la sicurezza aziendale con Websense^® Security Gateway, Websense V10000 Appliance e Websense Cloud Email Security

Abbiamo scelto Websense per il ricco database e per garantirci un’attività di categorizzazione superiore, con l’analisi dinamica del contenuto dei siti, pagina per pagina. Due elementi essenziali per la sicurezza in ambito Web 2.0.

Gianluca Giovannetti, Chief Information Officer, Gruppo Amadori

L’azienda Amadori è uno dei leader nel settore agroalimentare italiano, azienda innovativa e punto di riferimento per i piatti a base di carne. Nato a San Vittore di Cesena quarant’anni fa, il Gruppo – con un fatturato di oltre un miliardo di euro nel 2008 – è presente oggi sul territorio nazionale con 16 stabilimenti industriali, 33 filiali e agenzie, e può contare sulla collaborazione di circa 6500 lavoratori. Alla base del successo di Amadori c’è la scelta di gestire direttamente l’intera filiera integrata che consente un controllo diretto e certificato di tutte le fasi produttive: selezione delle materie prime, allevamenti, incubatoi, mangimifici, stabilimenti di trasformazione, confezionamento e distribuzione.

Il Problema

Aprirsi al Web 2.0 con serenità

Per aprirsi alle nuove frontiere del Web 2.0 e per far fronte a minacce sempre più evolute in particolare sui servizi aziendali online, Amadori ha ritenuto necessario aumentare il livello di sicurezza della propria infrastruttura IT. “Eravamo già a un livello soddisfacente – afferma Gianluca Giovannetti, Chief Information Officer di Amadori – sia sui client sia sul gateway, per quanto riguarda l’antivirus, l’antispam e il controllo della navigazione. Il problema, su cui sentivamo la necessità di intervenire, era che tutti questi sistemi erano basati sullo stesso motore antivirus. Riteniamo invece che avere due motori di scansione differenti sul perimetro e sui client aumenti il livello di sicurezza dell’infrastruttura.”

Ma non c’era solo questo. Molti utenti aziendali manifestavano la necessità di poter lavorare liberamente anche in mobilità, accedendo alla rete anche dall’esterno del perimetro aziendale, magari attraverso hot spot pubblici in aeroporti o altri luoghi poco protetti.

Sul versante del reparto IT invece, si era manifestata l’esigenza di ridurre il carico di lavoro derivante dalle attività di controllo sulla navigazione e sulle email, abbattendo il numero di chiamate all’helpdesk IT e liberando risorse per attività più evolute.

La Soluzione

Per il gateway aziendale la scelta cade su Websense

Nell’estate del 2009, il Gruppo Amadori ha deciso di valutare nuove soluzioni per differenziare i propri sistemi di sicurezza. È stata così avviata una fase di pilot in cui sono state prese in considerazione le offerte di tre vendor differenti. Gli obiettivi erano molteplici: sul lato mail, eliminare lo spam senza necessità di intervento del reparto IT, garantirsi una maggiore sicurezza generale sulle email, fornire agli utenti la possibilità di gestire in maniera indipendente e autonoma le mail finite in quarantena (soprattutto per il problema dei falsi positivi, erroneamente bloccati); alzare i livelli di automazione e quindi di efficienza, attraverso una soluzione di sicurezza più dinamica.

“Siamo partiti per tempo, nell’agosto 2009 – racconta Francesco Fabbri, Chief Security Officer del Gruppo Amadori – e abbiamo deciso di testare, fra gli altri, Websense. Questo perché Gartner la indicava nei suoi report come leader in ambito del controllo dei contenuti web. Così abbiamo deciso di provare, anche su consiglio del nostro system integrator VEM sistemi. Il testing è durato un mese, sia per la parte di appliance per la web security sia per il servizio di cloud mail. Devo dire che Websense si è rivelata all’altezza della situazione.”

La scelta è dunque caduta su Websense V10000 Web Security Appliance, con Websense Web Security Gateway e Websense Cloud Email Security. La scelta di un unico fornitore per tutte le esigenze strategiche ha permesso all’azienda di consolidare la sicurezza, riducendo il TCO e i costi di gestione.

Protezione in tempo reale

Websense Web Security Gateway protegge le organizzazioni da codici maligni, spyware, attacchi di phishing, botnet e altre minacce. Grazie all’integrazione di Websense ThreatSeeker Network, che scansiona quotidianamente Internet e analizza un miliardo di contenuti al fine di ricercare proattivamente le minacce, Websense Security Gateway é in grado di bloccare minacce conosciute, e non, nel giro di pochi minuti dalla loro scoperta.

Websense V10000 è un gateway web dalle altissime prestazioni, che sfrutta un sistema operativo ottimizzato per l’analisi del traffico e dei contenuti web. Offre la gestione centralizzata a livello di sicurezza web, proxy e cache e il controllo sulle applicazioni in modo da proteggere l’azienda nel mondo del web 2.0. Websense V10000 consente di implementare Websense Web Security Gateway su un’unica piattaforma. Grazie a più di 1800 motori per l’analisi multidimensionale (antivirus, reputazione web, analisi comportamentali), Websense V10000 identifica e blocca minacce dinamiche potenzialmente pericolose, controlla i contenuti personalizzati generati dagli utenti e provenienti da siti e risorse Web 2.0. Un’attività fondamentale in un simile contesto, dove l’alto volume di contenuti generati dall’utente rende indispensabile una soluzione di sicurezza in grado di controllare e classificare i contenuti. In poche parole, Amadori è ora in grado di analizzare in tempo reale i siti web, aprendo le porte alle informazioni utili e lasciando fuori quelle dannose.

Migliorare la sicurezza, semplificare la gestione

Websense Cloud Email Security elimina lo spam e il malware prima che raggiungano la rete aziendale. Il modello cloud fornisce sicurezza centralizzata comprensiva di ridondanza, failover e business continuity, semplificando inoltre l’amministrazione e ottimizzando i costi operativi della rete e la pianificazione della capacità. Completata da Service Level Agreement, la soluzione Websense Cloud Email Security permette di ridurre i costi, eliminare la complessità della gestione delle minacce email e avere il maggior livello di protezione possibile, con livelli di servizio garantiti del 99,999%, senza impatti dal punto di vista delle risorse.

In più, sfruttando Websense ThreatSeeker Network, Websense Cloud Email Security protegge le aziende da spam, minacce Web 2.0 e le minacce convergenti alla sicurezza, che si ritrovano in più del 90% delle mail.

Websense ThreatSeeker Network, tecnologia alla base delle soluzioni Websense, si avvale di 50 milioni di sistemi per la raccolta dati in tempo reale, i quali monitorano i contenuti Internet, compresi quelli nuovi e dinamici . Risultato: Websense è in grado di adattarsi ai rapidi cambiamenti di Internet a una velocità impossibile per soluzioni di sicurezza tradizionale e semplici soluzioni di email filtering.

Facilità di deployment

“La fase di deployment è stata semplice – prosegue Fabbri – perché le criticità che si possono ordinariamente riscontrare nel passaggio da un sistema all’altro sono state prontamente affrontate e risolte, oltre che dalle nostre risorse interne, grazie alla presenza di Websense Italia e all’appoggio del partner VEM sistemi. È stato dunque un cambiamento gestito con tranquillità, senza scossoni sull’infrastruttura IT, anche perché abbiamo avuto occasione di implementare il sistema con modularità.”

Il Risultato

Nuove funzioni e ritorno sull’investimento

Una delle priorità di Amadori era garantire la possibilità di lavorare in mobilità e in sicurezza. Risultato raggiunto grazie a Websense, che fornisce potente protezione da phishing, spyware e codice maligno sia in ufficio sia all’esterno.

“Durante il pilot – continua Fabbri – abbiamo implementato la quarantena personale: invece di dover attivare helpdesk per la verifica di mail bloccate, l’utente opera in autonomia ricevendo quotidianamente report delle email bloccate. Abbiamo poi attivato la funzionalità di Park Attachment, per parcheggiare allegati fino a cinquanta mega sui server Websense, svincolando le email dall’allegato ed evitando impatti negativi sul servizio SMTP di posta. Gli allegati sono scaricabili successivamente attraverso un link.”

Amadori aveva l’obiettivo di aumentare l’efficienza, riducendo le chiamate helpdesk e il carico di lavoro per il reparto IT. I problemi nascevano dal fatto che la soluzione precedente era statica e aveva una categorizzazione dei siti ridotta.

“La soluzione non era sufficiente – spiega Giovanetti, CIO di Amadori – dato che stiamo introducendo varie innovazioni, come il progetto Enterprise 2.0 per aumentare la collaboration sia interna che esterna con fornitori e partner attraverso vari strumenti, come una nuova intranet. La gestione delle attività sta migliorando, perché tutto è fruibile più semplicemente, velocemente e in sicurezza. Ecco perché Websense: per avere un database di siti categorizzati più ricco e garantirci attività di categorizzazione superiore, con l’analisi dinamica del contenuto. Due elementi essenziali per il Web 2.0.”

“Abbiamo introdotto nuove feature – conclude Giovannetti – con costi controllati e distribuiti in tre anni. Non abbiamo trovato altri vendor in grado di garantirci un simile ROI da nuove funzionalità. Lo scenario alternativo era acquistare le soluzioni da vendor diversi, con difficoltà derivanti da avere più interlocutori e con costi di gestione non prevedibili.”

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Anoka County

2011-02-02T19:53:00Z

Industry: Government

Location: United States

Products Used: Web Security

Fast-Growing Minnesota County Protects Employees and Essential Information From Emerging Internet Threats With Websense^®

After evaluating several Web security solutions we selected Websense Web Security and saw benefits right away.

Sam Sharp, Security Administrator, Anoka County Information Services

Anoka County government encompasses more than 22 departments that provide services to more than 320,000 citizens in one of the fastest-growing counties in Minnesota's Twin Cities region.

Keeping the county's information systems free of malware and protecting confidential government data is critical. Recently, Anoka County selected Websense^® Web Security to enable safe use of the Internet and protect its essential information.

"We were concerned about employees unknowingly visiting infected websites that could affect the entire network and potentially compromise confidential data," said Sam Sharp, security administrator for Anoka County Information Services. "Neighboring county governments and industry analyst firms had positive things to say about Websense. After evaluating several Web security solutions we selected Websense Web Security and saw benefits right away."

"Websense Web Security helped us to identify and resolve potential data leakage issues by identifying PCs infected with malicious software as they attempted to contact command and control centers for bot networks," added Sharp. "Typically, the end-user is unaware of the activity being exhibited by their PC, so having this visibility through Websense is a huge win for us. It provides management a better view of network traffic occurring between the Internet and our networks."

The Anoka County Information Services department supports departments and divisions within the county including transportation, law enforcement, public works, and administration, and is responsible for keeping information systems running smoothly.

"Websense Web Security has been a tremendous asset in allowing us to meet the varying needs of county departments and divisions. For example nurses and case workers in Health and Human Services need significantly different policies from employees in Facilities, the License Bureau, and Corrections," added Sharp. "Websense Web Security allows us to easily define and manage different policies much more effectively."

All Websense solutions, including Websense Web Security are powered by the Websense ThreatSeeker^® Network, which continuously monitors the Internet for changes and emerging threats. The resulting intelligence is immediately incorporated into the company's Web, data, and email security solutions. As a result, Websense solutions adapt to the rapidly changing Internet threat environment at speeds not possible by traditional security solutions.

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AsureQuality

2011-02-01T20:55:00Z

Industry: Quality

Location: New Zealand

Products Used: Web Security

Websense^® Passes the AsureQuality Test

It made us able to better manage spam and it achieved our aim of taking the load off our systems. Also, the service eliminated malware at the Internet level and stopped email-borne threats from reaching our network.

Lynley Lee, Information Communications & Technology Manager, AsureQuality

When Australian and New Zealand consumers buy their groceries, there’s a good chance that much of the food has already passed an inspection by AsureQuality, one of the world’s leading providers of food quality assurance and biosecurity services. The food testing giant was created in October 2007 by the merger of two New Zealand organisations, AgriQuality and ASURE.

Every day, more than 1,700 AsureQuality staff at nearly 140 locations throughout Australasia are responsible for auditing, inspecting and certifying food quality and food management systems. When a farmer sends his milk to a major producer, AsureQuality experts provide the inspection that ensures it meets required standards. Tests carried out by the company include soil examinations, organic certification, pest and disease inspections and verification. This enables food to meet export regulations and helps secure valuable international market opportunities.

Making sense of spam

Before the 2007 merger, AgriQuality was an organisation of approximately 850 people. Its widely dispersed and mobile workforce made network performance one of the major concerns for Information Communications and Technology Manager, Lynley Lee. In early 2007 Lee noticed that the volume of spam received daily was rapidly increasing and beginning to place stresses on the company’s systems. Lee explains, “We were receiving over 100,000 emails a month. Much of it was spam and our server was struggling to cope.”

At the time, the company did use filtering software, but it didn’t solve the problem that emails still had to arrive onto the mail server before being sorted into legitimate emails or spam. The server continued to suffer and staff still had to check the filter to ensure the right emails were being caught. “It caused a lot of frustration,” Lee says. “People were annoyed at the quantity of spam getting through and the sheer volume increased the likelihood of receiving a false positive assessment of emails.”

Simplifying the IT environment

Lee decided it was time to simplify the IT environment. Her first step was to move incoming email off AgriQuality’s servers completely. She chose Websense^® Hosted Email Security, an on-demand service designed to block spam and viruses before they reach the network, thereby dramatically reducing email bandwidth and storage requirements. At the same time, Lee overhauled the company’s approach to Internet use by adopting Websense Hosted Web Security, a step that would allow the introduction of centralised Web policy management even throughout the company’s remote locations, home offices, and its mobile laptops.

“Configuring these changes was easy,” Lee acknowledges, “but the practicality of transitioning to hosted email had a few challenges. The good side of it was that the Websense team was very focused in supporting us during the transition and everyone got on board to resolve any initial hiccups.”

Once the hosted service was fully up and running, Lee estimates that the volume of spam reaching AgriQuality was reduced by 90 percent. “It had a fairly high impact,” she says. “It made us able to better manage spam, and it achieved our aim of taking the load off our systems. Also, the service eliminated malware at the Internet level and stopped email-borne threats from reaching our network.”

Lee continues to explain, “With Websense Hosted Web Security, we wanted to manage Internet use more effectively, and we began by blocking certain website categories such as pornography and sex. We are using the Websense reporting tools available with the hosted service to conduct limited monitoring of sites visited by our staff when they are surfing the Internet at work. We have the tools to respond to human resources queries if necessary.”

However, with 2007 dominated by the merger with ASURE, a move that doubled the size of the organisation, Lee admits that Internet policies and governance have not been an immediate priority for the business.

“It is something that we plan to look at in the future but, for now, we are quite fortunate in that we have educated our staff about Web use quite well. More importantly,” she concludes, “our next project with Websense will be conducted in mid 2008 and will involve extending the use of Websense Hosted Email Security to protect all 1,700 staff under the merged AsureQuality.”

Centralising the company’s Web and email security through a hosted solution during this acquisition period has simplified AsureQuality’s IT environment, increased the network efficiency, and created room to expand into.

It’s a move that will ensure Lee and her team continue to keep spam and malware threats at bay as AsureQuality grows in the years ahead.

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