Challenge
Our client is a manufacturer and supplier of steel pipes, pipe solutions and related services for various sectors of the economy. The company has broad competencies in the machine-building segment, supplies engineering solutions for energy and metallurgical industries.
To strengthen the protection of the IT perimeter and reduce the risks associated with malicious activity on the network, we have developed a strategy for the client to ensure and develop cybersecurity. In this regard, a cybersecurity situational center was created last year, to which all the main production sites are connected today. Following the strategy, the company annually conducts large-scale cross-industry cyber studies.
This year, the company decided to devote cyber studies not only to testing technical competencies for detecting and repelling cyber attacks, but also to determining how employees understand the specifics of the business. Therefore, the company’s management entrusted the exercises to its reliable IT partner – CyberProx, which has many years of expertise in the field of information security. The project was implemented with the active participation of CyberProx company specialists.
Solution
To increase the effectiveness of the exercises, the CyberProx team conducted preparatory work before the start of the competition. CyberProx specialists conducted a survey in those areas that required more in-depth expertise of employees. As a result, a training program was formed, including both training materials, software distributions and videos, as well as webinars with experts in certain areas. Experts of IT companies also shared their experience – employees of the client’s company learned from them how to identify an attack and develop a defense strategy.
The exercise was attended by specialists from the IT departments of the client’s company under the guidance of our cybersecurity experts. The participants were divided into two teams, each of which was instructed and then conducted a full analysis and setup of the system according to the legend, trying themselves as attackers and defenders. The intensive exercises lasted for two days in an environment as close as possible to the real one. The work in the teams was supervised by an experienced coach, and its results were evaluated according to the methodology developed by CyberProx. Both groups received identical infrastructures, including a network perimeter, web applications, an office segment and specific services. The specialists of each team had to protect their perimeter, set up monitoring and repel attacks, as well as carry out attacks on the adversary segment.
During the competition, the teams had to not only protect their infrastructure, but also keep the business afloat by increasing capital. Thus, specialists were able to gain experience working with different solutions, improve their competencies in the field of cybersecurity, and most importantly, learn how to plan a budget and manage resources, in other words, independently solve various business tasks, going beyond their job descriptions. The client’s team fully utilized all available functionality and demonstrated a high level of training. As for the service itself, we can conduct cyber studies both in the form of general educational competitions and individual ones, taking into account the specifics and potential vulnerabilities of a particular organization. In this case, we create a double of the company’s infrastructure, on which the client will be able to test products and technologies, identify risks and improve their approach to cybersecurity.
Result
Today, digitalization permeates almost all business processes of the company, and in these conditions, increased requirements are imposed on IT specialists – they must develop software and hardware infrastructure, maintain the operability of services needed by employees, ensure the smooth operation of systems and equipment in a single digital landscape. To do this, we constantly improve the qualifications of our colleagues and develop key competencies in partnership with industry leaders. Cybersecurity studies have become one of the tools for this. In addition to strengthening information security and improving the skills of our specialists, such events strengthen team spirit, which is especially important given the wide perimeter of the client. During this challenge, the client was able to assess the current level of training of their specialists, see them from a new perspective, identify talented managers and make a plan for further development.
If you want something similar for your company: a training, a competition organized by experienced cybersecurity specialists, a thematic event dedicated to the issue, we will be happy to help you with it. Preparing the workers of your company for potential digital threats and educating them about handling such problems is the first step to a secure digital environment. CyberProx experts will always be by your side to let you prosper safely and confidently.