The Challenge
With a reputation for style and flair, Louis is the number one brand for motorcycle clothing and accessories in Europe. Keeping stores and the e-commerce site running smoothly are essential to a positive buying experience for Louis customers. Yet, issues with the retailer’s prior McAfee security software were impacting productivity of employees in the stores.
The IT department at Louis was getting bogged down responding to nearly daily malware alerts that often turned out to be false positives and unnecessarily alarmed users. In addition, security scans were slowing the performance of workstations, further disrupting employee productivity.
To address these issues, IT evaluated several solutions, including Business Security Enterprise, McAfee Endpoint Protection, and Sophos Intercept X.
Sascha Neuhaus, IT Security Officer, Louis, says, “We chose Business Security Enterprise over the other solutions because it was easier for our administrators to use and manage our endpoints across our Windows, Linux and Apple environments. We also were impressed with the powerful and insightful EDR capabilities of the platform.”
The Solution
Louis uses Business Security Enterprise to provide endpoint protection, detection, and response (EDR) capabilities across more than 1,400 Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux Ubuntu workstations, Microsoft Windows servers, and VMware virtual machines. The endpoints reside in Louis’ retail stores and data center.
Applications protected by the platform at Louis include Microsoft Exchange, terminal services and file shares.
According to Neuhaus, deployment of the platform was a breeze: “It was quite easy to roll out to our 1,400-plus endpoints. It took just 14 days to deploy across each department one by one. After that, we only needed to fine-tune the policies.”
Cyber Security Solution
Business Security, Cloud Management Console
Organization
Louis
Industry
Retail, eCommerce
IT Environment
Microsoft Exchange, VMware vSphere
Operating Systems
LInux Ubuntu, macOS, Microsoft Windows
The Results
Since implementation, Louis has been secure from an outbreak or breach.
Explains Neuhaus, “The platform regularly detects malware and automatically blocks it. The reports provide us with a lot of insights that help us learn more about potential threats and how to respond in the future.”
“EDR capabilities provide us with detailed reporting on how processes were affected across the entire incident chain,” Neuhaus continues. “That saves us an immense amount of time on investigating since the manual work is eliminated.”
In addition, the average monthly rate of false positives has decreased from about 30 to 12 since Louis deployed the platform. Consequently, Neuhaus and his team have more time for higher-value tasks, such as investigations and fine-tuning policies.
As a retailer, Louis must comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). The platform streamlines compliance by automatically keeping endpoints and policies up to date according to the latest PCI DSS. Neuhaus estimates the team has reduced time spent on compliance from two days to one hour per week on average.
Using the cloud console, Neuhaus and his team have found it to navigate and manage. He explains, “The cloud-based interface is easy to use and let us get a holistic view of our entire environment with a few clicks.”
Another advantage of the platform is the lightweight footprint. After deploying, slow endpoint performance has disappeared and in fact endpoints now run 20 percent faster.
Customer support also has been a highlight of the relationship for Louis. Neuhaus notes, “I’ve worked with a lot of vendors and customer support is one of the best. They are quick to respond and often resolve an issue or policy exception we’re requesting in less than a day.”
Looking ahead, Louis IT is planning to adopt Microsoft Azure to advance their cloud strategy. Says Neuhaus, “We’ve had such good results, it is likely we will use the platform to protect our future Azure cloud as well.”
