Winkelmann Group Case Study

Winkelmann Reduces
Risk and Meets Audit
Requirements withForescout

2 hours> 170%

Daysto achievecomprehensive visibility

more assets discovered

saved each monthby SecOps

Overview
INDUSTRY
Manufacturing

ENVIRONMENT▶ 6,800 wired and wirelessassets across three continents▶ 4,300 employees

CHALLENGE▶ Lack of visibility into all
connected assets on
the network, including
IT, IoT and OT▶ Meet TISAX security
regulations forautomotive industry▶ Minimize risk of businessdisruption from cyberattack

The Winkelmann Group is a multinational manufacturer specializing intechnologically advanced metal forming processes, with core businessin the automotive, heating and water industries. By implementing theForescout Continuum Platform, the Ahlen, Germany-based company gained
comprehensive visibility across its entire organization, including IT, IoT andOT connected assets in its production facilities in Europe, Asia and North
America. The company also gained accurate, real-time asset inventory,
continuous asset compliance, network access control (NAC) capabilities andmore, all of which help minimize the risk of a breach or business disruption.

“We needed network access control andsegmentation, but first we needed to know
exactly what was on our networks.”— Niklas Kaiter, System and Network Administrator, Winkelmann Group

Business Challenge
To receive TISAX certification, a security standard required for German
automotive manufacturers, Winkelmann Group had to implement NAC
and network segmentation. In addition, the company had experienced afew virus incidents that disrupted operations of endpoints and servers.
Thankfully, the company’s IT staff was able to fully restore the machines
after these events. However, these cyberattacks, combined with audit
feedback, led executives to rethink its cybersecurity approach andcommit to investing in the right solutions to better secure its users andassets – starting with being able to see everything on their networks.
1Winkelmann Group Case Study

Why Forescout?
SECURITY
SOLUTION▶ Forescout Continuum
Platform▶ Forescout eyeExtend

After its initial research into potential NAC and segmentation solutions,
the Winkelmann Group down-selected four vendors. “Forescout
offered a much broader feature set and much more comprehensive
visibility than any of the others, and Forescout was much easier
to implement,” recalls Winkelmann Group System and Network
Administrator Niklas Kaiter. “The competitors either did not haveenough functionality or were too complicated and time-consuming todeploy. The Forescout Continuum Platform was much more flexible,
with an intuitive dashboard, easy access to granular data, and seamless

USE CASES

integration with many of the other tools and systems we use.”▶ Asset inventory▶ Asset compliance▶ Network access control

Business Impact
Comprehensive visibility in hours, including IoT and OT“We initially guessed we had approximately 2,500 assets, but even theRESULTS

initial trial of the Forescout platform showed 5,000, including IoT and▶ Rapid time to value –ranging visibility in just two hours, with most of the assets classifiedcomprehensive visibility
within two hours, across
IT, IoT and OT assets▶ Initial real-time, accurate
asset inventory after
only half a day▶ Security operations saves
hours daily regarding network
and asset management▶ Minimized risk of breachwith automatic, continuous
posture assessment acrossall connected assets▶ Accelerated time to detect
and remediate vulnerabilities▶ Facilitated policy creationand enforcement▶ Has laid the foundation forecosystem integrations andnetwork segmentation

OT assets, which we had never seen before,” says Kaiter. “We had wideautomatically. Expanding from trial to production deployment also
took only two or three hours. Within half a day in full deployment, wecould produce a real-time, accurate asset inventory with just a few
clicks on the Forescout dashboard. Ultimately, we saw a total of 6,800
assets – over 170% more assets than we originally guessed we had.”Upleveling security posture with easierdevice compliance
Winkelmann boosted its security by using the Continuum Platform toautomatically and continuously assess the security posture of all connectedassets – IT, OT and IoT. When an asset attempts to connect to Winkelmann’s
network, the platform checks to make sure that antivirus software is installed
and running, Windows Firewall has been enabled, Windows updates arecurrent and that the asset is on the correct VLAN. If the antivirus software is
not running, for example, the platform attempts to reactivate it. If the asset
cannot be brought back into compliance automatically, an administrator
is alerted for manual remediation, such as moving it to another VLAN.
“Besides asset hygiene issues, Forescout has uncovered serious
vulnerabilities and threats, such as the use of blacklisted applications
or a non-corporate laptop accessing our network via VPN,” notes JanErik Strauss, also a system and network administrator. “We still see newthings almost every week that we would never have seen otherwise.”2

Winkelmann Group Case Study

Reducing network administration burden“Forescout has uncovered
serious vulnerabilities andthreats … We still see newthings almost every weekthat we would never haveseen otherwise.”—Jan-Erik Strauss, System and Network
Administrator, Winkelmann Group

Deploying the Continuum Platform also saves Winkelmann’s small teamof security and network administrators multiple days each month andmakes their jobs easier. Just one example: in the past few years, after thecompany shifted from an on-premises antivirus solution to one in thecloud, as agents were uninstalled and reinstalled, some endpoints ended
up without any antivirus protection. “With Forescout, it was easy to see
not only how many assets needed attention but exactly which ones andwho they belonged to,” explains Strauss. “The depth of asset information
available is incredibly useful and saves us time in multiple ways.
“The Forescout Continuum Platform is exceedingly powerful yet quite
easy to set up and use,” says Strauss. “We were able to configure
the platform without much external help. The dashboard is intuitive,
and it’s very easy to create new groups and policies and so on.”

“NAC but also so much more”
Although the Winkelmann Group saw value from Forescout on Day
One, it has just begun to leverage the holistic capabilities that theContinuum Platform offers. In the future, Winkelmann plans to automate
more security processes, add network segmentation and move frommonitoring to policy enforcement for IT assets as well as machines on
the factory floor. It has already integrated the platform with its VMWareinfrastructure, firewalls and Active Directory and hopes to take advantageof seamless integrations with other systems in its environment as well.
When asked what he tells peers about the Continuum Platform, Kaiterreplies: “You can invest one-quarter of what the Forescout platform costs
but then you’ll only have one-quarter of the security, or even less. You just
won’t have the breadth of functionality you get with Forescout. … We bought
Forescout for NAC, but we use it daily for asset management and foresee
many future use cases. Yes, it’s a NAC solution, but it is also so much more.”

Forescout Technologies, Inc.

©2023 Forescout Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. Forescout Technologies, Inc.

Toll-Free (US) 1-866-377-8771
Tel (Intl) +1-408-213-3191
Support +1-708-237-6591

is a Delaware corporation. A list of our trademarks and patents can be found at

Learn more at Forescout.com

marks of their respective owners. Version: 01_02

https://www.forescout.com/company/ legal/intellectual-property-patents-trademarks. Other brands, products, or service names may be trademarks or service3