Forcepoint > Case Studies > Smurfit Kappa Enhances Security and Productivity with Forcepoint

Smurfit Kappa Enhances Security and Productivity with Forcepoint

Technology Category

Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Application Development Platforms

Applicable Industries

National Security & Defense
Packaging

Applicable Functions

Maintenance

Use Cases

Construction Management
Tamper Detection

Services

Cloud Planning, Design & Implementation Services

About The Customer

Smurfit Kappa is one of the leading manufacturers of corrugated and solid board packaging. The company employs approximately 38,000 people and operates in about 30 countries worldwide. In the Netherlands alone, Smurfit Kappa has 22 factories. The company produces most of its raw materials within its own paper mills, which are processed along with other Point-of-Sale material (POS), consumer packaging, and displays. Smurfit Kappa's customers include leading organizations such as Unilever, The Greenery, and Quick.

The Challenge

Smurfit Kappa, a leading manufacturer of corrugated and solid board packaging, faced a significant challenge in managing its IT infrastructure. The company's IT division was responsible for managing all servers and domains in the Active Directory of the Smurfit Kappa Group, which ran in two data centers located in Amsterdam and Nieuwegein. The division was also tasked with information security management, dealing with incidents of spam, malware, and data theft or loss. The team was dealing with an average of 350 security incidents per week, a daunting task. Additionally, as a global company, Smurfit Kappa had to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley laws and regulations (SOX), which imposed strict requirements for data storage. The existing solution was high maintenance and required continuous monitoring. The company needed a solution that could delegate responsibilities, reduce tasks for IT operations, and manage 56 email domains and 532 DNS servers across Europe, Russia, South America, and Mexico.

The Solution

Smurfit Kappa decided to implement the Forcepoint platform after a successful pilot project. The company was looking for a solution that could handle proxy, content categorization, and virus scanning, along with advanced reporting capabilities and customizable categories. Forcepoint Web and Email Security proved to be the best fit for Smurfit Kappa. The company implemented four appliances, two in each data center. However, the Forcepoint solution could be managed from a single console, making it a highly flexible, hosted solution. The Forcepoint solution also offered the advantage of operating in the cloud, providing an extra layer of security and control. The cloud feature allowed email to be checked at the door of the data centers, preventing many threats from entering the system.

Operational Impact

The implementation of Forcepoint brought immediate benefits to Smurfit Kappa. The platform was easy to use and provided opportunities such as black and whitelists for individual users. The team noticed a significant increase in the number of emails in quarantine facilities, indicating that unsafe or unauthorized content was being effectively blocked. The previous solution was not blocking such emails. The Forcepoint solution allowed Smurfit Kappa's end users to work safely in a highly secure email environment. The cloud feature of the solution provided an extra layer of security, checking emails at the door of the data centers and preventing many threats from entering the system. The solution increased both productivity and safety, providing optimal protection against phishing attempts and hackers.

Quantitative Benefit

Reduced the number of security incidents from an average of 350 per week
Managed 56 email domains and 532 DNS servers from a single console
Implemented a solution that operates in the cloud, providing an extra layer of security