Augmenting Microsoft Defender

In this case study, a global industrial gases and engineering company was facing growing threats, which led them to seek out an advanced  email security solution that would augment their existing Microsoft 365 tools. 

Globally, we communicate and run our businesses in a digital landscape that is threatened by the growing sophistication and sheer numbers of cyber threats and vulnerabilities. Energy companies are increasingly threatened by cyber-attacks via multiple channels and threat vectors, which can result in severe consequences. Just recently, US Colonial pipeline was hit by a ransomware attack that shut down the service for five days, resulting in the company paying a ransom of $5M. This is just one of many cyber-attacks being targeted at the gas and oil industry.

The client is a large global company with over 60,000 users across different geographic sites. The client functions within a complex environment that poses many challenges when integrating additional security platforms. The substantial escalation of targeted cyber attacks on large scale companies made the implementation of an advanced security solution vital. The objective was clear: the client required an advanced cybersecurity solution that did not compromise performance. The client faced the following challenges: 

• The client utilized a complicated Microsoft 365 environment which consisted of many rules and settings across the organization. Therefore, the client required a flexible security system that could adjust itself accordingly. 
• The client’s size and large number of users posed a challenge for integrating with  legacy non-cloud-native platforms. The client’s users were located in several regions, each with different settings and needs. Further, the client required a gradual deployment process that would not affect its users’ performance or work environment.