THE PROBLEM
The two information technology managers at the hotel have multiple responsibilities, including network maintenance, in-house training and technical support, and guest technical support. It has become apparent that, on a day-to-day basis, the sheer volume of work is overwhelming them.
The technical layout of the hotel includes a number of security systems including a web content filtering server, a desktop anti-virus solution and a network firewall. They also scan their network for vulnerabilities once per quarter. The network firewall does an adequate job of securing the network perimeter from direct network attack, but it does nothing to block attacks that are brought in by users inside the network. The content filtering solution prevents users from visiting high risk sites, but it can be bypassed easily. The client anti-virus solution provides good protection against known virus threats, but it does nothing for unknown threats. Finally, scanning the network for vulnerabilities once per quarter provides the hotel with a good understanding of the security holes in the network, but it also produces a huge remediation task list for a staff that is busy enough as it is.
With no way of knowing what is happening on the network and, most seriously, blind to any attacks other than a known virus, the hotel decides to act.
THE SOLUTION
The hotel management contacts PISA Security, Inc. At the hotel’s request, the PISA team implements PisaProtect™, PisaDefend™ and PisaMind™, a comprehensive information security solution that increases a hotel’s security posture while decreasing maintenance.
PisaProtect™
First, the PISA team installs the PisaProtect™ integrated security gateway by Astaro, combining the hotel’s firewall and content filtering solution into a single secure hardware appliance and adding additional features such as network anti-virus, intrusion detection and intrusion prevention. No longer will attackers be able to bypass the content filtering server, nor will attacks from the Internet go undetected.
PisaDefend™
Next, the PISA team installs all the patches that are missing on the network with the PisaDefend™ Scan & Patch service, and installs the PisaDefend™ Onsite Manager appliance. Once the PisaDefend™ Onsite Manager appliance is installed, the hotel IT managers are instantly able to see all the activity on the network. They receive computer and firewall event log data, performance counters, installed software, patch status and SNMP data all from a single easy to use console. In addition, with the PisaDefend™ Onsite Manager’s alerting and trouble ticket system, they can rest assured that they will be alerted if anything unusual were to happen.
PisaMind™
Finally, the PISA team designs a comprehensive, online security awareness training module for the hotel's learning management system. The training module not only provides the employees with valuable information about how to respond to incidents at work, but also helps them be better protected at home.
THE RESULT
After implementing PisaProtect™, PisaDefend™ and PisaMind™, the hotel management committee is relieved and the hotel IT managers are overjoyed. Not only do they now have a strong security system in place, but if anything goes wrong, they have a system to alert them, and a well trained staff. |
