Oxygen Technical Services Ltd

This Post is part of a 4-part series on Cyber Security.

Background

With the confusion and requirements for companies and organizations to have to do a complete pivot when COVID-19 forced businesses to implement their Business Continuity Plans, Oxygen was inundated with request to enable their users to be able to do exactly that, work from home.

Challenge

Invariably the one major hurdle we had to get around was the continued accessibility and security of their data, especially when you look at some organizations were going to have allow users to use, potentially, non-compliant hardware.

Solution

The immediate focus was to ensure the “north/south” attack vector was secured, this meant that the firewalls, and edge devices, were updated, and
had all the required Advanced Threat Protection platforms in place, this was made easy through the Meraki solutions, and their cloud management
platforms. The next step was confirming we had appropriate protection at the client level, with end point protection, and Umbrella.

Once the north/south was hardened, we then focused on the east/west vector – that is, users who are working remotely; whether that be working from home, the coffee shop or the sports arena.

This was done via SSL VPNs, advanced monitoring of the ecosystems through our Managed Services platforms, and continued implementation of end
point protection and Umbrella.

Another key point was the rapid roll out of our Security Posture Reviews (SPRs) which identified potential exposure whiten an environment and
using these advanced analytics to mitigate and current or potential security exposure.

Results

Through March, April, and May of 2020 we were able to rapidly and dynamically deploy a consistent solution across our client base, representing all vertical markets. The key word is rapidly, because we had a plan of attack, and the support of key vendors, we didn’t have to have slow down and review as we executed for the clients.

We were able to execute 23 SPRs for our clients and corresponding solutions as these clients moved forward with their Work From Home strategy.

Next Steps

The actions we took during COVID-19 allowed us to refine our SPR process, further engage with our vendors, and bolt on additional platforms that we
are now able to role out to our clients. We are now executing our 2nd phase of the SPR process across our base of managed clients.