Control Southern, a trusted automation partner for process industries in the Southeastern United States, was facing a growing number of multi-vector cyber attacks targeting its network and endpoints. The company's existing firewalls were reaching end of life and the existing Sophos platform was unable to handle the increasing threats of malware, phishing, and larger-scale infections. The situation worsened when Control Southern moved to Office 365 and experienced a surge in phishing attacks on its endpoints. Ransomware gained access through malware on a web browser, infecting servers and spreading to connected client computers, encrypting gigabytes of data within minutes. The company's McAfee software on endpoints was not updating systems correctly, adding the burden of manually pushing updates to endpoints almost daily.

Sallie Mae was facing significant challenges in securing its cloud perimeter from external threats. The company needed to respond in real-time to events like malware, phishing, and injections that could potentially compromise the security of their systems and the data they hold. The existing on-premise data centers were not able to scale and speed up to the level required to effectively manage the security risks. The company was also struggling with reporting risk to management in a timely manner. The growing AWS environment added another layer of complexity to the security challenges, requiring visibility and scalability in the security solutions.

Swiss Re, a leading reinsurance company, faced a significant challenge in protecting critical data on the 4,500 notebooks used by its employees. These laptops were used by employees who frequently traveled, commuted between different locations, or occasionally worked from home. The existing password protection in Windows XP was deemed inadequate, as notebooks protected in this way were vulnerable to misuse within minutes with easily available hacking tools. The company needed a solution that would prevent unauthorized persons from reading the data on these notebooks. The solution had to be compatible with the existing server infrastructure, the application components on the laptops, and the software distribution mechanism. It also had to be installable automatically during operation without the need for support employees on site.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, LTD. - Takasago Machinery Works, a manufacturer of heavy machinery that provides water and electricity, faced significant challenges in securing their network of 8,500 PCs against emerging security threats. The company was struggling to stop business disruption from attacks targeting OS vulnerabilities and protect its intellectual property from leaking through security gaps. The factory needed a unified solution that could provide automatic security updates, enforce compliance, maintain connectivity and business continuity while controlling endpoint access to the network, and protect the network against external infections and loss or theft of confidential intellectual property through unauthorized communication programs.

Connexus Energy, Minnesota's largest electric cooperative, faced significant challenges in protecting its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and Industrial Control System (ICS) networks from cyber threats. With the rise of smart grids, smart devices, and IoT devices, traditional SCADA and ICS systems often lacked the necessary security controls to defend against sophisticated cyber attackers. Connexus Energy was using multiple security solutions from different vendors, each with specific management requirements, consuming a significant amount of the team’s technical resources. The security team had to parse logs from different systems to identify issues and respond accurately. Furthermore, secure gateways for the SCADA system had to operate in extreme physical conditions, and many of Connexus Energy's existing security solutions were not ruggedized or only partially ruggedized. The challenge was to find a solution that could protect the SCADA system while delivering centralized visibility across the entire security environment.

Regina Miracle, a leading manufacturer of intimate wear, sportswear, and personal protective equipment, was facing a significant challenge in terms of cybersecurity. The company was experiencing an increasing number of phishing and malware attacks on its Office 365 users. The company's IT team was responsible for managing and securing more than 7000 endpoints and users, which was becoming increasingly difficult due to the rising number of attacks. The company had previously relied on Microsoft protection for its Office 365 Email solution and Trend Micro for endpoint security. However, these solutions were not keeping pace with the rapid increase in email phishing and malware attacks. The situation was further exacerbated by the pandemic, with phishing campaigns targeting webmail and SaaS applications becoming the most significant threat to the company.

Jebsen Group, a leading brand builder and investor, faced a significant challenge in securing its digital transformation. The company had built an agile infrastructure to support the digital transformation of its internal processes and integration touchpoints with customers. This IT architecture included cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments to support each business unit most effectively. However, the company needed consistent protection and quality of service across its locations, as well as between its AWS cloud and on-premises environments. Gathering threat intelligence across its locations was critical to maintaining consistent security for all users. The company was particularly concerned about credential phishing and wanted better protection for endpoints. Cost-effective scalability was essential, and previous efforts to cope with a growing attack surface had involved completely replacing firewalls or buying extra capacity that might not be needed. Jebsen Group was seeking a solution that delivered high visibility with easy manageability across its diverse environments.

ViuTV, a licensed free television station in Hong Kong, faced significant security challenges as it expanded its cloud footprint. Initially, the company launched its services using a traditional physical infrastructure, but soon migrated to AWS to handle unpredictable traffic volumes and eliminate server management issues. However, this shift led to three major security concerns. Firstly, ViuTV lacked visibility across all its cloud accounts and assets, making it difficult to ensure proper usage and prevent data leaks or security loopholes. Secondly, the company needed to protect against misconfiguration risk, which could expose the system to threats. Lastly, ViuTV wanted to ensure compliance with security standards and frameworks as part of its risk management strategy. The security options offered by its cloud providers were too fragmented to provide the necessary visibility and control.

E-REDES, the primary energy distribution system operator in mainland Portugal, faced a significant challenge in securing its vast and diverse infrastructure. The company operates and maintains over 99% of Portugal's energy distribution power grid, connecting more than six million customers through 220,000 kilometers of lines, approximately 500 substations, and 60,000 secondary substations. With the increased digitalization of its infrastructure, E-REDES recognized the heightened cybersecurity risk. The company needed a solution that could provide detailed visibility of all network traffic within substations to identify and analyze abnormal behavior. Additionally, it was crucial to segment zones at each substation, separating the engineering zone used by employees for remote access to systems from the operational technologies dedicated to critical power distribution functions. Lastly, E-REDES required security assets that could detect, identify, and prevent threats from affecting either zone.

Proxeem, a company providing hosting, IT project management, and web development services, faced the challenge of securing websites, web applications, and APIs across a diverse customer base. The company's customers span a wide range of industries, each with different web applications and API connections into different platforms. Proxeem needed to deliver industry-leading protection affordably to its customers while minimizing ongoing solution management. The challenge was to implement reliable security across its customer base without extensive customization, specialized expertise, or extra support staff.

NetUSE AG, a leading IT system house in northern Germany, faced a significant challenge in securing its internet-active employees and providing a comprehensive security solution while maintaining operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The company, which started as one of the first Internet service providers in Germany, had expanded into a large IT security and infrastructure provider. However, the high internet usage by its employees, including private internet usage, exposed the company to various cyber threats. The company needed a robust security solution that could cover the breadth of the landscape and protect its assets from potential cyber-attacks.

TopRx, a leading national supplier of generic pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter drugs, vitamins, and home health products, faced a significant challenge in extending robust protection to remote endpoints. The company needed to enhance its security posture with better visibility into threats and simplify endpoint security management. The COVID-19 pandemic forced employees to work from home, and TopRx needed to extend protection to their systems. The company's priority was ensuring nonstop operations, and a strong security posture was integral to this goal. Until the pandemic, most of the company's users and endpoints were on premises, defended behind Check Point Next Generation Security Gateways. The challenge was to find a solution that could provide continuous protection for all endpoints, whether on or off the corporate network, and proactively detect, identify, and remediate threats.

NHS England, the organization responsible for overseeing the budget, planning, delivery, and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the National Health Service in England, faced a significant challenge in securing mobile access for its 6,800 staff members. The organization had to simplify security management for its critical mobile workforce, which was increasingly reliant on mobile devices for tasks such as checking emails, sharing reports, setting up video calls, accessing staff records, and submitting expenses. The challenge was not only to provide secure access but also to ensure compliance with the UK’s Data Protection Act, 2018, and the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Gimv, a European investment company, was faced with the challenge of securing critical data as it developed its cloud IT strategy. The company was also tasked with simplifying the management of an ever-changing threat landscape. As a business, Gimv's challenge was to identify investment opportunities, examining more than 1,000 companies each year for their investment potential. The company needed to balance corporate security with end-user flexibility, allowing staff to work from a device and location of their choice, while maintaining an overview of the threat landscape.

Avianca, Colombia’s national airline, was faced with the challenge of migrating to Microsoft Azure public cloud while maintaining security and compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley, PCI and GDPR. The company was also looking to segment and secure portions of the network to reduce risk. As part of its corporate-wide digital transformation initiative, Avianca aimed to move as many operations to the cloud as possible to increase agility, reach, and cost-effectiveness. One of its first steps was to move its e-commerce site to the Microsoft Azure public cloud environment. However, the Azure public cloud's security services were not sufficient for Avianca's needs, which required additional capabilities to strengthen security and support unique technologies in both its internal operations and customer-facing services.

Goglio Group, a leading multinational company in the packaging sector, was facing a significant challenge in consolidating its IT security. The company needed to save time and resources, better protect confidential customer data shared between branches, achieve real-time zero-day protection from the latest security threats, and guarantee the security of customers’ sensitive data. Goglio has a data center in Varese, with dual connectivity (fiber optic and radio). Initially, all data lines for internet access from the European sites converged in the Varese headquarters. Goglio needed an Internet connection in every location, each protected by a separate firewall, but all managed centrally by its IT team. The company was looking for a solution that would help them improve the security of their data and that of their customers, in an agile way, achieve real-time protection and maintain governance and control in Varese.

Ayesa, a multinational Spanish company specializing in engineering, technology, and consulting, faced a significant challenge in protecting its cloud-based SaaS applications, particularly Microsoft Office 365, from sophisticated cyber threats. The company needed to protect user identities and credentials from targeted attacks. Ayesa had migrated to the cloud to improve productivity and facilitate decision-making and project development for its nearly 5,000 employees worldwide. Despite having standard protection measures and integrated security measures offered by Microsoft, Ayesa was still vulnerable to cyber threats. Research showed that 90% of data breaches on SaaS applications occur from targeted attacks, and 50% of breaches in companies using SaaS happen when attackers take control of accounts and compromise employees’ corporate credentials.

Hotel Nikko, a luxury hotel located in San Francisco’s Union Square, was facing a significant challenge in maintaining its network security. The hotel relies heavily on its network to support guest services, reservation systems, property management, and other critical business operations. Any network outage could lead to lost revenue, disappointed guests, and damage to the hotel’s reputation. Despite having a firewall from another vendor, the hotel found it difficult to manage and it provided only limited protection against sophisticated network threats. The situation became critical when a virus invaded the hotel’s network and impacted some of its most critical business systems. The hotel was in need of a comprehensive security solution that could identify and mitigate the latest online threats, and was easy for its small IT team to set up and use.

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group), a large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise, was facing significant challenges in protecting its complex network infrastructure from increasingly sophisticated threats. Traditional firewall and anti-virus protection were proving insufficient. The company needed a comprehensive and robust security solution that could protect its information assets, provide secure remote access to corporate resources, integrate intrusion prevention for increased protection, and simplify and centralize network security management. The solution also needed to be future-proofed, capable of evolving with the company's needs and the ever-changing threat landscape.

Ada County, Idaho, is responsible for managing and maintaining security for multiple departments across several cities. The county's multi-agency network includes Emergency Management, Parks and Waterways, Juvenile Court, Paramedics, Waste Management, and more. The challenge was to maintain separate network zones for each agency and specific policies for departments and individuals. The primary focus for the Ada County IT organization was robust integrated security, consolidation of technologies, and centralized management. They needed to integrate the latest network protection strategies for a strong security posture, manage a large distributed security infrastructure, eliminate the administrative burden associated with operating a multi-vendor security solution, and simplify network security management, administration, and reporting.

Pacific Coffee Company, a rapidly growing coffee chain with around 80 retail outlets throughout Singapore, Hong Kong, and China, faced a significant challenge when transitioning from conventional cash registers to a modern, integrated Point-of-Sale (POS) system. The challenge was primarily related to network security, especially with the introduction of a new customer loyalty card program, the Perfect Cup Card. This card, which replaced the previous paper card system, required the secure sharing of real-time transaction data between the POS terminals in coffee outlets and the main data center. The company needed a solution that could securely handle this data transfer, protect the POS systems from potential security threats, and support the new sales and marketing initiatives associated with the Perfect Cup Card.

Walters-Dimmick Petroleum, Inc. (WDP), a marketer of Shell petroleum products, operates a large network of Shell-branded retail facilities across Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. These facilities not only sell Shell gasoline but also incorporate convenience stores, fast food restaurants, car washes, ATMs, phone card services, and other services. The company faced a significant challenge in managing more than 58 locations, each of which required a secure Internet connection for email access and corporate communications. When WDP replaced its dial-up service with broadband, it needed a solution that could provide secure, high-speed DSL across all its locations. The company also sought a solution that could meet and exceed the requirements for PCI compliance, which includes protecting systems containing cardholder data from Internet threats, securing transmission of cardholder data across public networks, enforcing access and authorization policies across networked systems, providing application protection for Web-facing systems, delivering real-time security updates, and simplifying management, reporting, and analysis of security systems.

The University of Hawaii (UH) was facing a significant challenge in managing its computer-network security and availability for over 47,000 students and 30 in-house software developers. The university was using a firewall from a legacy computer-network provider, which lacked the necessary functionality and user-friendly interface. With a community of over 58,000 students, faculty, and staff, and a peak usage of 36,000 sessions per second, UH needed to stay ahead of the network demand curve and prevent potential performance issues. The university also required a solution that was flexible and adaptable to the changing pattern of attacks on the Internet. The existing firewall/VPN was too rigid and lacked intelligent management capabilities. Therefore, UH began to evaluate alternatives to its current configuration in winter 2004.

P&T Luxembourg, a leading provider of residential and professional services in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, faced a significant challenge in protecting their infrastructure, applications, and data from the increasing threat of Internet attacks. The speed, profusion, and structure of these attacks, including viruses, spamming, and phishing, necessitated the development of preventive and remote security measures. The company needed to ensure that these security measures were in place before any potential attacks could strike their IT infrastructure. Furthermore, there was a growing trend among companies to rely on external service providers for safeguarding their IT networks and infrastructure from Internet threats. To meet this challenge, P&T Luxembourg turned to a range of Check Point solutions to provide its customers with a dependable, quality service.

Agenzia ANSA, a leading news agency in Italy and one of the first in the world, faced a significant challenge in ensuring secure remote access for its travelling users. The agency, which provides complete coverage of Italian and foreign events through 22 offices in Italy and 81 agencies in 74 countries, needed to protect its popular portal from intrusion attempts and attacks. ANSA's journalists, working under stressful conditions and extreme deadline pressure, needed to be able to file their stories in a timely manner from anywhere that news is breaking. The agency had relied on VPN-1 Power for years to guarantee secure connections for its remote offices and local bureaus to the home office. However, there was a need for a solution that would allow users to transmit news stories from any location where there is Internet service.

The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, one of the world’s most respected centers devoted exclusively to cancer patient care, research, education and prevention, faced a significant challenge in maintaining patient privacy. The center, which handles approximately 65,000 patients annually, has always prioritized patient privacy, even before federal and state regulations made it mandatory. As part of their Code of Ethics, patient information is confidential and cannot be disclosed to third parties without patient consent. However, with the advent of the internet and the opportunities it presented, such as telemedicine, remote access to patient records, remote consultation with a patient’s primary physician and mobile healthcare services, the center had to find a way to balance these technological advancements with the stringent requirements of HIPAA. The challenge was not only substantial due to the sheer number of patients but also because of the large number of employees, volunteers, students, postdoctoral fellows, and others who needed access to the information for educational and distance-learning opportunities.

Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., one of the largest container-shipping companies in the world, faced a significant challenge in maintaining information security while providing high-performance network access to its globally dispersed workforce. With over 3,000 employees spread across approximately 200 sites worldwide, the company needed a solution that could ensure secure access to network resources, even from less reputable sites. The company's operations were supported by three regional data centers in Haifa, Hong Kong, and Norfolk, Va., and its remote users utilized a variety of network services, including FTP, email synchronization, and remote desktop via Citrix. The geographical dispersion of the company's operations added another layer of complexity, as Zim needed a centralized view of its security solution across its widespread gateways.

Travelex, a global leader in foreign exchange services, faced significant challenges in securing its distributed network. With over 300 workstations in 200 retail locations across the United States and Canada, the company needed to ensure the secure exchange of proprietary financial data across its network. However, many branch locations were connecting to the internet through unsecured dial-up, making it difficult to ensure that all remote locations had the latest antivirus signatures. This situation made certain offices susceptible to aiding virus outbreaks. Additionally, connection speeds varied widely across branches, making it unreliable to push out patches when security upgrades were necessary.

The Ritz London, a legendary hospitality establishment, is renowned for its attention to detail and guest confidentiality. However, a security incident involving the theft of a PDA belonging to the IT manager, Richard Isted, highlighted a significant challenge. The stolen PDA was synchronized to Richard's email, and the existing security measures required the device to connect back to the mobile network to self-destruct. This system was deemed insufficient for lost or stolen devices. Furthermore, Richard needed a solution that would protect the information on all mobile devices used by The Ritz's executives without compromising usability. Many executives used their PDAs for email communication and viewing downloaded files, pictures, or music. Therefore, the solution needed to be user-friendly, fast, and transparent, and allow for a degree of flexibility to accommodate both work-related and personal use.

Since the 1990s, Electrolux has experienced significant growth and acquisitions, leading to a lengthy process of reorganization. For the IT organization, this meant consolidating infrastructure, focusing resources into a few data centers, and emphasizing connections between these data centers, business offices, and production plants. Connections with the remaining server farms at local sites were equally important. Electrolux had approximately 600 UNIX and Windows servers and about 70 AS/400 systems in Europe, as well as a mainframe. Over time, especially following acquisitions, various problems arose due to the integration of disparate information systems. VPNs had to be established to link different equipment and operating environments while maintaining their ability to be remotely managed. In 2005, Electrolux accelerated the process to optimize its infrastructure and solve the problems of managing such a widely distributed system.