IT Security Success Stories

Business Problem:

A high technology client expanded its product offerings to include security solutions but recent security incidents had the potential to damage the company brand

Challenges:

1. Company experienced six security incidents in less than one year
2. Existing security organization was inexperienced and had no long-term strategy for improvements
3. Company was growing rapidly and information technology group was under considerable pressure to scale systems to support the business

Results:

1. Security strategy enabled the company to achieve industry recognized certification for their security program
2. This certified security program was perceived as a competitive advantage by customers and included in their sales and marketing programs
3. Company was able to reduce security spending by 25%  

Improvement Process:

1. Completed comprehensive security assessment to identify key business risks and developed two-year security improvement roadmap
2. Established Security Governance Board to oversee security program and manage security risks for the company
3. Completed analysis of information security organization and designed cost effective staffing strategy  

Business Problem:

A publically traded company had a serious security incident and was unable to close their books and report their quarterly results

Challenges:

1. Disgruntled employee left company and had an in-depth knowledge of the company’s internal business systems
2. Security controls were not in place to prevent former employee from accessing key financial systems and making them unavailable to finance staff
3. Company was on tight deadline to file their quarterly earnings

Results:

1. Company was able to close their books in time to meet their filing deadline for quarterly earnings
2. Completed security improvement program and achieved satisfactory rating for their program in one year
3. Company did not experience any further security incidents that affected their business operations 

Improvement Process:

1. Identified security vulnerabilities and prevented disgruntled employee from gaining access to company’s business systems
2. Completed a comprehensive security assessment and developed a two-year strategy for improvements
3. Assisted client on accelerated program to improve their security program

Business Problem:

Software company announced major strategy to focus on the information security market but shortly afterwards experienced embarrassing security incident

Challenges:

1. Company had a limited number of security product offerings and their internal security program was supported by competitor’s products
2. Information security staff were inexperienced and no formal information security program was in place
3. Company was experiencing considerable growth and the IT group was under pressure to rapidly scale their systems  

Results:

Company’s information security program became known as one of the best in the industry and perceived as such by prospective customers

Improvement Process:

• Established  program to become first users of company’s products and discontinue use of competitor’s products
• Initiated multi-year approach to improving information security program
• Developed “Selling to the CIO” presentation for the sales organization and conducted training for sales and professional services organizations

Download the full overview of our Information Security program.