Case Study: Security Consulting - Professional Golf Club

A local golf club in the West Midlands engagedIronshare to review their current IT setup and advise them on how to improvetheir security.

THE CHALLENGE

The IT infrastructure of the Golf Club, services approximately 15 employees, as well as the general membership and guests who attend the course through corporate golf days, society events, or formal business meetings.

Desktops,Laptops and servers had become outdated and several concerns were raised by themanagement committee around the security of their systems and data. A lack ofIT staff or IT service provider meant that regularly maintenance and updateswere not being carried out.

Members of the club staff were working remotely without basic security in place, increasing the risk to the business. Staff were generally unaware of malware and phishing scams, and the different ways it can penetrate an organisation.

THE SOLUTION

The clientapproached Ironshare about their concerns and we dispatched a Technical SecurityConsultant to undertake a full evaluation of their network. The analysis was compiledinto a detailed report, which we presented to the club along with the proposedcyber security recommendations.

Ironshareimmediately recommended that the club install numerous urgent security patchesand address several significant gaps in their network infrastructure security. Severalendpoints were found to have been infected and required remediation. A newsolution was required to ensure such threats could be detected and contained infuture.

Our Managed Security Service using Cisco Umbrella was proposed to protectthe business from phishing, malware, and advanced threats. In addition, it wasrecommended that the club address their lack of IT support, to ensure thattheir systems are maintained and updated regularly.

THE RESULTS

Based on the successof the initial Security Consulting engagement, the golf club have signed upwith Ironshare to provide a Managed IT and Security Service.

Following theinstallation of the Cisco Umbrella cloud-based security, combined with the IronshareManaged Service for on-going support and management, the club have seen significantimprovements in the security and availability of their business systems.

• The Club’s management committee now have an increased level of confidence that security concerns can be addressed quickly and effectively.
• They now have a local dependable business partner that they can rely on for support of their network, giving the users a better overall experience of the IT systems.
• A full evaluation of the network to provide best practice advice on how to move forward.
• Proactive support of their infrastructure – not just waiting for problems to occur.
• Fundamental security awareness advice and guidance delivered in a simple way to make staff aware of online threats.
• A partner that was focused on working together to identify the right solutions for the business challenges they faced, based on organisation size and who was sensitive to budget constraints.
• On-going access to technical expertise about new solutions and business practices that the club could evaluate and implement in the future.
• Pro-active account management with regular contact and meetings to constantly ensure the relationship continues to develop and flourish.

Please note that the identity of this client has been withheld to protect commercial confidence.