CUSTOMER CASE STUDY AMANA BANKA Combination of Advanced
EDR and Firewall Delivers
Advanced Protection to aTanzanian BankAmana Bank is a full-fledged, licensed, and registered commercial Islamic
Bank in Tanzania, operating under Sharia Compliance. Since it began its
operation in 2011, the bank has experienced tremendous growth and has
assumed a prominent role in the banking and finance industry in Tanzania.
This growth is backed by a continuously scaling IT infrastructure to meet thedemands of the business and its clients. This has meant the bank now has tosecure its network and endpoints from a growing attack surface, made worseby the sophisticated nature of attacks. The small, but supremely efficient IT
Team at Amana Bank, therefore wanted to build a cybersecurity posture that
protected them from known and unknown threats, in real-time and at the sametime was easy to control and manage. Sophos emerged as the perfect security
vendor for their needs.

CUSTOMER-AT-A-GLANCE
Amana Bank
Tanzania
Industry
Banking and FinanceWebsitewww.amanabank.co.tz

Sophos Solutions
XG430
Sophos Central Intercept X
Advanced for Server with EDR
Sophos Central Email Advanced

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY AMANA BANK

“Threat detection, visibility, and automated response are thethree primary qualities we were looking for from a cybersecurity
perspective. Also, we did not want to work with different vendors
but a single security partner who could offer security solutions forthe network, as well as, endpoints. Sophos ticked all the boxes.“ABDUL BANDAWE, HEAD OF ICT, Amana Bank

Challenges
Ì Addressing the prospect of ransomware
attacks being launched against the bank
Ì Inability to filter user activities and gain
insights into risky user behavior
Ì Protecting employees from phishing attacks
Ì Difficulty in keeping track of, and managing
numerous security initiatives and data
coming from diverse security solutions
Ì A small IT team tasked with optimizing theperformance of the IT infrastructure, as
well as, managing the security protocols

Dependence on traditional security solutions
was limiting the cybersecurity posture of Amana
Bank. The IT team recognized the importanceof transitioning to a far more mature security
approach than they currently had, the kind of
approach that offered comprehensive security
across the network and endpoint.
“We were working with different security vendors
and were finding it difficult to manage the disparate
security solutions. Analyzing and evaluating datafrom different sources was a time-intensive task.
What’s more, we were still not getting the depth ofsecurity we wanted,” states Mr. Abdul. The IT team
set about exploring the various options available on
the market, preferably from a single vendor, that not
only delivered excellent protection but wherein all
the installations could be managed from a single
console.

Mr. Abdul was also concerned about the rise ofphishing attacks and their increasing levels ofsophistication. He wanted to deploy smarter email
security that stopped ransomware and all mannerof stealth and phishing attacks.
Also, the overarching approach to security
transformation had to focus on creating a security
ecosystem that talked to one another and worked
in tandem to identify threats, isolate infected
endpoints and remediate threats in an automatedmanner, thus saving the IT Team’s time that could
be spent elsewhere.

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY AMANA BANK“Along with the best endpoint protection available on themarket, its EDR functionality purpose-built for IT security
operations and threat hunting is a big plus. As a smallteam, we wanted to support in answer questions aroundsecurity incidents and maintain security operations
hygiene and EDR has answered this need, in its entirety.“ABDUL BANDAWE, HEAD OF ICT, Amana Bank

A Centralized and Mature
Approach to Security withSophos
The IT Team evaluated a range of security solutions
and what differentiated Sophos and its powerful
security portfolio from the competition, is that thisportfolio spanned both network and endpoint. Also,
the adaptable and advanced nature of the solutions
coupled with a core focus on performance andcutting-edge technology, encompassed by thepower of Synchronized Security, left no room for
doubt that Sophos was perfectly placed to address
the Amana Bank’s security needs and challenges.
With Sophos Firewall, the IT Team gets tremendous
visibility and control over all applications on thenetwork and any malicious activity impacting
performance. “We are also impressed with Security
Heartbeat that links the Sophos Firewall to theSophos Managed Endpoint and isolates threats
before they move laterally through the network,”says Mr. Abdul.
With the Advanced Threat Protection feature, thefirewall detects bots and any other advanced threat
launched against the network. Also, the team can
now configure user identity-based policies andmake use of unique user analysis to control users
and their activities on the network. The team now
has complete visibility and control over the web
traffic and can exercise enforcement based on user
activity, schedules, quotas, and traffic shaping. Mr.
Abdul is now confident that they have full control
over their network as they can now keep a watch on
traffic, users, and apps.
With Intercept X for Endpoint, the Bank’s endpoints
are protected with best-in-class endpoint security
that offers features that stop unknown threats,
block ransomware, and prevent exploits. The

endpoint protection leverages deep learning AI todetect and block never-seen-before malware; andits anti-ransomware capabilities not only detects
and blocks ransomware but also roll back changes
to files, thus ensuring business continuity.
Also, features like application lockdown, web
control, data loss prevention, and signature-based
malware detection, ensure Mr. Abdul and his teamcan rest easy knowing all-encompassing endpoint
security has got their back.
Also, features like application lockdown, web
control, data loss prevention and signature-based
malware detection, ensure Mr. Abdul and his
team can rest easy knowing an all-encompassing
endpoint security has got their back.
“Along with the best endpoint protection available
on the market, its EDR functionality purpose-built
for IT security operations and threat hunting is aCUSTOMER CASE STUDY AMANA BANK

big plus. As a small team, we wanted to support inanswer questions around security incidents andmaintain security operations hygiene and EDR has
answered this need, in its entirety,” says Mr. Abdul.
For the team, EDR baked into Intercept X ensures
the team now has access to historical endpoint
data that offers answers to drive informed
decision-making. All the team needs to do now, is
ask specific questions around performance andsecurity and get data-backed answers. When theteam confirms a security issue, the device can beremotely accessed to take necessary action.

The Bank now benefits from a Sophos ecosystem,
wherein products are connected to each othervia Synchronized Security and all of them can be
managed from a single management console –Sophos Central.

Deployment Results

With Sophos Email, Amana Bank and its IT Team areable to maximize the potential of the solution’s deeplearning neural network to stop zero-day malware
and unwanted applications. They also get thebenefit of behavioral analysis to stop ransomware
threats and boot-record attacks at the gates.

Sophos has delivered on all Amana Bank’s security
needs and has allowed the IT Team to address
all security challenges in an end-to-end manner.
Post Sophos deployment, the bank benefited
from immediate security ROI through easier
management and control and quicker support.
With Sophos Central, the team now has complete
visibility, management and control of all the security
installations, and can easily push security policies
and make sense of all the security data coming
their way.

“The biggest benefits of using Sophos Central Email
Advanced is that it easily and comprehensively
blocks phishing attacks using a range of techniques
including SPF, DKIM and DMARC and analyses
such as email header anomaly, display nameand lookalike domains. Sophos Email blocks,
quarantines and tags suspicious messages with awarning,” explains Mr. Abdul. I now have confidence
that employees won’t fall a victim to phishingattacks.

“We are happy with all aspects of Sophos
implementation and have a special word of praisefor its EDR as it has given us new insights into
security incidents and enabled us to build a bettercybersecurity posture. With Sophos, we were able
to build cutting-edge cybersecurity infrastructure,that is extremely easy to manage. So yes, werecommend it to any organization that is challenged
by the evolving cyberthreat landscape,” signs off Mr.
Abdul.

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Registered in England and Wales No. 2096520, The Pentagon, Abingdon Science Park, Abingdon, OX14 3YP, UKSophos is a registered trademark of Sophos Ltd. All other product and company names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

2021-11-03 CCS-EN (NP)