National Public Healthcare Organization safeguards public health operations with Proofpoint
The Challenge
- Protect growing healthcare agency email from phishing and ransomware threats
- Automate manual processes to free up security team
- Empower end users to take more control over their own security
The Solution
- Proofpoint Email Protection
- Proofpoint Targeted Attack Protection
- Proofpoint Threat Response Auto-Pull
- Proofpoint Encryption
- Proofpoint Security Awareness Training
The Results
- Reduced the risk of advanced malicious attacks with a comprehensive, layered solution
- Significantly reduce operational impact of threats which previously slipped through
- Ongoing employee education nurtures a culture of security
The Challenge
Protecting an essential public healthcare organization from new threats
This national public healthcare organization is responsible for tracking a variety of infectious diseases across its country, and routinely handles sensitive healthcare data. Like most healthcare organizations, it considers cybersecurity a top imperative. And it takes proactive steps to protect its data and communications.
The organization had been growing significantly, and needed a comprehensive, scalable solution. When the organization’s legacy email security system began approaching end of life, the organization saw an opportunity to not only strengthen its overall security posture, but help its IT team work more efficiently.
“We needed a solution that we could initially deploy as an on-premises appliance, and would require less maintenance,” said the organization’s IT manager. “We needed greater visibility into potential threats, and more reliable and precise blocking of real threats. At the same time, legitimate traffic needs to flow unimpeded with minimum manual intervention.”
The search for a stronger email security solution became more urgent when a related healthcare system encountered a ransomware attack. The IT manager and his team were determined to move fast to upgrade the organization with the latest email threat protection. They needed to do this with a seamless migration that didn’t impact the organization.
The Solution
A strategic, comprehensive email security solution
The organization worked with its partner to find a complete, best-in-class email security solution. The partner worked closely with the organization’s team to understand their requirements, and they recommended Proofpoint Email Protection. This flexible email solution can be deployed either on premises or as a cloud service. And it uses advanced machine learning technology to discover threats that other solutions can’t.
The deployment process went smoothly. And Proofpoint Professional Services provided assistance. This provided assurance that the organization could migrate to the new system without compromising security.
“We had to make sure that the Proofpoint integration was seamless, and that we didn’t reduce our level of email security during migration,” said the IT manager. “Proofpoint helped us formulate a migration plan that allowed us to do out-of-band parallel testing. Once testing was complete we were able to seamlessly bring the Proofpoint solution into production, and were delighted that everything functioned as expected.”
The Proofpoint Threat Protection Platform secures the organization against the very latest threats. These include imposter email, phishing, spam, malware, bulk mail and more. To further safeguard the integrity of its email, the organization also implemented Proofpoint Encryption. This automatically encrypts emails and attachments in the background, with no manual steps from users required.
The organization considers security not only a technology challenge, but an organizational one. To help build a culture of security and empower staff as the first line of its defense, the partner chose Proofpoint Security Awareness. This targeted education offering helps their staff keep pace with a changing threat landscape. And it helps them respond most effectively when encountering phishing emails or other sophisticated attacks.
The Results
Automating for efficiency while improving security insights
Putting this modern email security solution in place has enabled the organization to gain an improved understanding of security threats. And it’s given the team the ability to address them.
“With Proofpoint, we have much more visibility into threats in near real-time,” said the IT manager. “Since implementing Proofpoint we have analyzed quarantined emails and log files to understand which emails are being held back and why. As a result, we are confident we can just let Proofpoint do its job, saving us around two hours each day of laborious manual processing and decision making.”
The automated solution helps the organization save money on expensive IT time. And at the same time, it frees up staff to focus on other initiatives. Its insights and reporting capabilities also help the organization maintain consistent best practices, which it can document during audits.
“We maintain certification to international information security standards,” said the IT manager. “The Proofpoint dashboard, reports and log files are a great help. Now we can evidence identified issues and the corresponding positive actions we have taken to remediate and improve security.”
The Proofpoint Professional Services team has helped the organization realize the full value of its investment. “The support we have received from Proofpoint has been fantastic,” said the IT manager. “We always felt that we had a person available to help us with any issue or concern.”
The IT manager and his team have recently extended the solutions by deploying Proofpoint Encryption and Security Awareness Training across the organization. They’ve also deployed a cloud instance for Proofpoint security, which is part of the organization’s cloud-driven strategy. This means Proofpoint will continue to remain a pillar of the organization’s security strategy well into the future.