Introduction
Our client is a prominent worldwide industry leader in the B2B distribution of Paper, Packaging and Visual Communication solutions. In the UK, the organisation operates through a network of sales and logistics facilities spanning the country. The head office accommodates the bulk of its IT users, while the remaining IT personnel are situated in other office locations.
The Challenge
The client’s IT team play a pivotal role in supporting company strategic objectives by managing essential business applications and communication tools. Their responsibilities encompass improving productivity, cost reduction, and mitigating risks. Within the company’s IT infrastructure, various tools and capabilities are in place to safeguard the business from cyberattacks and security incidents.
One crucial aspect of these security measures was the utilisation of a category-based web access filtering system, built on the legacy Symantec Blue Coat solution. This system provided monitoring of web access, generated management reporting, and allowed the logging, blocking, or granting of access to certain websites based on predefined categories. However, these products reached the end of their operational lifespan (EOL) and were to be formally retired by Symantec.
Our client wanted to introduce a modern and secure web resolution service alongside their existing system. They needed to do this without affecting the current system’s performance, as part of their plan to retire outdated tools in stages. They were looking for a solution to replace the aging Blue Coat web filtering system with ongoing support and updates.
Additionally, they needed a solution for devices that were slowing down network capacity and didn’t have malware scanning capabilities. The new service had to be easy to set up, dependable, offer category-based filtering and management reports, and work seamlessly for all employees, regardless of their location.
The Solution
Babble recommended the Netskope Next Generation Secure Web Gateway (SWG), which is a straightforward forward-based proxy service. This service, in a more advanced fashion, replaced a commonly overlooked network function, namely domain name lookups, with a more sophisticated security-enhanced service, which effectively monitors and secures all requests for website access from the client’s computing devices.
The Netskope Secure Web Gateway also offers several key features, including built-in reporting capabilities, an extensive range of 80 website categories that can be used to create specific policies, and enhanced scanning for identifying concealed malware and viruses within web traffic. These features complemented the existing Sophos malware solution on the client’s endpoints. More notably, the Netskope Secure Web Gateway is designed for resilience, with built-in redundancy, scalability, and fault tolerance, making it a robust and reliable platform.