Case StudySouth Central Power Company
Electric Utility Gains Visibility, Compliance and Zero Trust
Network Segmentation with Forescout$600,000+

1 WEEK

5+ MONTHS

saved in three-year ROI benefits

to discover all devices

saved on asset inventory

Overview
Industry
Utilities/Energy

Environment
1,400 wired and wireless devices
across five locations; 250
employees

Challenge•

Lack of visibility into all deviceson the network•

Physical segmentation ofnetwork causing visibility blindspots•

Compliance with PCI andcritical infrastructure
regulations•Confidence that security tools
in layered, multivendor defense
are doing their job•Enforce policies without
disrupting operations

South Central Power Company (SCP) is a member-owned electric utility serving
more than 120,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers across 24
counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. To provide continuous device visibility, network
access control (NAC) and network segmentation, rather than turn to multiple
vendors, the company implemented the Forescout platform. With the Forescout
solution, the company achieved 100% device visibility and control while
simplifying and accelerating the design and deployment of Zero Trust network
segmentation and reaping additional efficiencies estimated to save more than
$600,000 in three years.

Business Challenge“Besides helping us to see more clearly, we wanted a ‘Big Brother’ to double-check
our other security tools. We also knew we needed help with segmentation.”— Jeff Haidet, Director of Application Development and Architecture,
South Central Power Co.
Despite its multilayered defense and multivendor security stack with best-ofbreed security tools, South Central Power Company still had no idea how many
devices were on its network. To protect personally identifiable information (PII)
and business operations and comply with PCI regulations, the SCP security
team knew they needed a way to continuously identify, segment and enforce
compliance of every connected thing on its heterogeneous network. They also
desired a way to validate that other security tools in the environment provided
accurate information and performed as intended. In addition, SCP staff suspectedthat the corporate network’s physical design hindered security but did not know
how to confirm the problem or implement more logical segmentation.

Security Solution••••

Forescout eyeSight
Forescout eyeControl
Forescout eyeSegment
Forescout eyeExtend forCarbon BlackUse Cases••••••

Network access control
IoT security
Network segmentation
Asset inventory

Why Forescout?
During an independent penetration test that reconfirmed the need for better
visibility and NAC, the pen tester highly recommended Forescout. They impliedthat if the Forescout platform is on site when they arrive, it has already done
their job. This glowing recommendation led the company to learn more about
the solution, which led to a deep-dive proof of concept. “As soon as we saw andunderstood the power of the Forescout platform to bridge visibility and control
security gaps – and of eyeSegment to noninvasively rectify segmentation
shortfalls – we knew that it was what we were looking for,” claims SCP Managerof Applications and Security Jeff Haidet. “Vendor independence was also ahuge selling point because we are constantly upgrading or replacing networking
hardware.”Device complianceBusiness Impact

Security orchestration

Comprehensive Visibility Opens Eyes and Overhauls Asset Inventory

Results•Rapid time to value – fullvisibility and 100% deviceclassification in weeks•

Continuous, comprehensive
visibility across all networkconnected things•

Accurate, real-time asset
inventory system replaced
cumbersome manual method•

Simplified, accelerated Zero
Trust network segmentation,
thanks to a clear
understanding of traffic flows
and ability to simulate policychanges•

Ability to switch network
hardware without penalty due
to vendor-agnostic visibility•

Oversight to validate
other security tools in theenvironment•

Zero Trust NAC to block rogueand noncompliant devices•

Visibility and control that aids
both security operations andnetworking teams daily•

Significant ROI – $612,500
three-year savings projected

The Forescout platform was up and running and providing granular visibility
in hours. The SCP security team then let it run for a week. It discovered a totalof 1,400 endpoints – an average of seven to eight endpoints per employee,
which made a significant impression on senior management. The system autoclassified 85% of the devices, with the remaining devices classified shortly after
that. Without the Forescout platform, locating and classifying all devices in thecompany’s five locations would have easily taken six months, if it happened atall. Such comprehensive, real-time visibility allowed SCP to scrap its inaccurate,
paper-based asset inventory process. Processes for onboarding and offboarding
equipment also improved dramatically.

Non-Disruptive Approach to Zero Trust Segmentation
To improve segmentation, Haidet and his team turned to Forescout eyeSegment.
“We used eyeSegment to map traffic flows and determine which devices, users
and services on the network need to talk to each other,” explains Haidet. “Theability to logically define segments, as opposed to physically defining them,accelerates visibility into behavior. For example, eyeSegment showed us how
two different groups of devices were passing information back and forth fromone switch port to another undetected because their communication never hit agateway. So, we moved gateways to gain the visibility we need. It is also helping
us redesign our physical segmentation and do so noninvasively. We can simulate
policies to see if anything breaks, and fine-tune and re-simulate as needed before
we actually implement.”

Oversight for Device Compliance and Security Tool Validation
SCP security uses the Forescout platform to continuously monitor endpoints
for the presence of appropriate antimalware agents and patching, as well as forcritical vulnerabilities or unauthorized apps like Dropbox. If a device does notcomply with corporate policy, the Forescout platform blocks it from accessing
the corporate network or pushes it to the guest network. “When the Covid-19
pandemic caused most of our employees to work from home via VPN, the ability
to continue monitoring their device’s compliance became even more important,”
notes Haidet. “In addition, Forescout lets us double-check that the pieces of ourlayered security stack – from firewall to switch to antivirus – are doing what theyneed to be doing.”

“To gain the functionalitythat Forescout provides—from seeing and managing
assets to triggering control
actions and accelerating
Zero Trust segmentation—
we would have needed
multiple tools. Going with
Forescout was far morecost-effective.”— Jeff Haidet, Director of Application
Development and Architecture,
South Central Power Co.

A Truly Collaborative Partnership and Undeniable Business ValueAt South Central Power Company, both security operations and networking teams
rely on the Forescout platform daily. “The Forescout team is also an extension ofwhat we do,” notes Haidet. “We have a truly collaborative relationship – which isvery difficult to achieve with vendors when you acquire new tools. I think we’ve
hit a homerun here. With just 250 employees, we’re small potatoes for Forescout.
However, the level of support and commitment Forescout has given us makes us
feel like a Fortune 100 company.”
To quantify the economic benefit of turning to Forescout, Haidet used acustomer-based ROI tool developed by IDC. The ROI analysis showed $612,500savings over three years from IT staff efficiencies, risk mitigation and businessproductivity benefits and IT infrastructure cost reductions. When talking withpeers, Haidet tells them: “Forescout is your vendor-agnostic, ‘one-stop oversightshop.’ The bigger your network gets, the bigger the cost savings and stronger yourcase for it becomes.”

Forescout Technologies, Inc.
190 W Tasman Dr.
San Jose, CA 95134 USA
Toll-Free (US) 1-866-377-8771
Tel (Intl) +1-408-213-3191
Support +1-708-237-6591

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