Sophos UTM - Wireless Protection

New Zealand Red Cross is a nationwide NGO and part of the largest humanitarian organisation in the world. It delivers a wide range of humanitarian services to people in need including hot meals for the housebound, safe transport to hospital, practical help for refugee families, assistance in restoring family links, back-up for aid workers overseas, and organising fundraising initiatives.

It provides first aid training and critical support during emergencies as well as running 53 shops throughout the country selling second hand goods.

IT SECURITY SPECIALISTS

BUSINESS CHALLENGEWith 28 Service Centres throughout the country supporting 98 branches and groups with over 5,000 members and 10,000 volunteers, New Zealand Red Cross has seen a rapid increase in the use of smartphones for email and other applications suitable for use in the field, including cross-cultural aids. This, coupled with a move to a new cloud-based infrastructure, meant that an enhanced level of protection (including secure wireless) was required.

New Zealand Red Cross has 480 staff in its locations throughout the country using a combination of desktop PCs, laptops and other smart devices. Branches in major centres employ 20-30 staff, while sites in smaller locations have only two or three users. The growing nature of the organisation with an expanding range of services meant that a change in IT infrastructure was needed to maintain secure communication together with safer storage and access to data, particularly by field workers who need instant access to sensitive information. New Zealand Red Cross management made the decision to move from an internal network infrastructure to an externally hosted cloud-based platform.

Wayne Sims, CIO at New Zealand Red Cross, explains, “We recognised that the organisation now required more than the basic firewall protection we had in place with our existing LAN. We decided to move to a secure third-party data centre in Auckland, and we’re now hosting all of our applications there using a hosted cloud-based service”.

This significant change meant that a new IT security solution was needed to protect the new gateway to the cloud. “The move away from an internal network infrastructure meant we needed a more resilient security model, so we started looking for a solution that would allow us to better monitor and control traffic in and out of the network,” says Mr Sims.

“The needs of the organisation had moved considerably, and we now needed enhanced endpoint protection, Wi-Fi control, and web traffic filtering,” he explains. “Ideally we wanted a single solution that could deliver on all of these requirements, and a system that is easy to manage for our small IT team,” adds Mr Sims. The IT department began evaluating potential solutions based on vendor recommendations and internal engineers’ feedback, before ultimately deciding that Sophos Unified Threat Management (UTM) / Wireless Protection represented the best fit for the organisation.

“We had a very clear idea of our needs, so we could see immediately if a solution was able to tick all the boxes,” says Mr Sims. “We felt comfortable that Sophos UTM could meet both our immediate and long-term needs, and because we had a

CASE STUDY

“Sophos Unified Threat Management Wireless has provided us with comprehensive protection that is easy for our small IT department to manage and administer. It’s invisible to us most of the time, simply because it’s doing its job.”

ORGANISATIONNew Zealand Red Cross

LOCATIONWellington – National Head Office 28 Service Centres throughout New Zealand including Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton and Palmerston North

USERS 480

SOLUTIONSophos Unified Threat Management (UTM) / Wireless Protection

proven track record with Sophos Endpoint Protection within Red Cross the decision became that much easier,” he adds. “We’ll always look more favourably at new solutions we know will ‘play well’ with our existing systems, and this also supports our preferred approach to cultivate and leverage fewer, stronger partnerships,” he explains. New Zealand Red Cross engaged acknowledged IT security specialist SSS to assist with the implementation of its new Sophos UTM solution.

Mr Sims. “If we do have any questions, we get excellent support from SSS who have always been highly responsive over the 2 years we’ve worked with them.”

OUTCOMES

The IT team at Red Cross New Zealand believes it has already realised considerable value from its investment in Sophos UTM.

“We had reasonably high expectations leading into the roll-out of Sophos UTM, and I must admit we’ve been pleasantly surprised just how well it has performed,” says Mr Sims. “We had a relatively complex install, which ultimately ended up being very seamless in the end, and that speaks volumes to the quality of the product,” he explains. “We’ve managed to simplify our IT infrastructure significantly, and Wi-Fi deployment in particular has been easy,” he adds.

“We simply pair a new access point in the Sophos UTM console, and then Sophos does the rest - and Wi-Fi is up and running which is awesome,” he explains. Sophos UTM allows Red Cross to manage its IT security centrally from its Wellington headquarters, and things have been performing well to date. “Our Sophos UTM solution is meeting all our requirements and is pretty invisible to us most of the time. Put simply, it’s doing its job and letting us get on with ours,” concludes Mr Sims.

ABOUT SOPHOS UTM - WIRELESS PROTECTION

The Sophos UTM gives you complete security from the network firewall to endpoint antivirus in a single modular appliance. It simplifies your IT security without the complexity of multiple-point solutions. The intuitive interface will help you quickly create policies to control security risks. And clear, detailed reports will give you the insight you need to improve your network performance and protection. Wireless Protection is just one of the modules available on the Sophos UTM platform. The other modules available are Network Protection, Email Protection, Web Protection, Webserver Protection and Endpoint Protection. SSS - IT SECURITY SPECIALISTS 0800 777 001 SALES@SSS.CO.NZ

sss.co.nz

IT SECURITY SPECIALISTS

THE SOLUTIONSophos Unified Threat Management (UTM) makes IT security simple with easy to manage control of network firewalls to endpoint antivirus in a single modular appliance. Sophos UTM has an intuitive interface that will help you quickly create policies to control security risks. Rich reporting will give you the insight you need to improve your network performance and protection.

• Comprehensive network security: Sophos UTM provides a consolidated network security platform without compromise. With Sohpos UTM you can protect your network using multi-layered proven protection technologies including Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), IPS, VPN, email and web filtering combined with a single, user-friendly admin interface.

• Next-Gen Firewall Functionality: With Sophos UTM you can choose the level of protection you need with modular subscriptions as every feature is available on every appliance. You get genuine Next-Gen Firewall features, giving you complete control to block, allow, shape and prioritise applications.

• Intuitive management and rich reporting: Highly intuitive management and rich reporting means you’ll know what’s happening with your users and you’ll have complete control over all the features you need, with no added complexity. Sophos UTM lets you easily build policies while getting detailed real-time and historical data with comprehensive on-box reporting, helping you to fix problems fast. The Free Sophos UTM Manager lets you centrally administer several appliances through a single login.

• Connect remote offices with easy VPN and Wi-Fi: Sophos RED (Remote Ethernet Device) provides secure remote access to your off-site locations. It’s the first security gateway that requires no technical skills at the remote site. Once installed, it forwards traffic to the Sophos UTM for complete security. Sophos UTM also works as a wireless controller; access points are automatically set up and receive complete UTM protection.

“We have a relatively small IT team, so whatever technology we introduce must be easy to deploy and simple to manage,” says Mr Sims. “We worked closely with the team at SSS to carefully plan how Sophos UTM would be best set-up and configured to meet our specific requirements, and we felt very comfortable leading up to the implementation that it would go smoothly with their help.”

IMPLEMENTATION

The third-party hosting of the Red Cross network infrastructure meant all three parties needed to work closely to manage the implementation of Sophos UTM.

“We had a slightly unusual set-up to most, with the new Sophos UTM solution needing to be held within a LAN hosted by a third party, but SSS worked really well with our LAN provider TeleSmart,” says Mr Sims. “Both vendors were able to provide unique technical value to the implementation, and it was great to have such strong support to ensure everything fell into place,” he explains. With Sophos UTM now successfully deployed, New Zealand Red Cross has quickly taken control of its management. “We’ve very pleased with how user-friendly Sophos UTM is to manage, and we’re now able to handle system upgrades ourselves with ease,” says