CUSTOMER CASE STUDY CASABLANCA-SETTAT REGIONAL INVESTMENT CENTER

Cutting-Edge Firewall
Delivers Extended
Network Security to Centre
Régional d’investissement
de Casablanca
The Casablanca-Settat Regional Investment Center in Casablanca, Morocco
is a Government organization focusing on driving new business creation,offering assistance to investment projects, highlighting the attractivenessof the Casblanca-Settat region as a business destination, and improving
the overall regional business climate to attract investments. This center isserious about security and believes it is one of the core pillars which ensuresbusiness continuity and the protection of client data. The organization
was looking for a network security solution that extended advanced
protection to its branch offices, seamlessly and comprehensively.

CUSTOMER-AT-A-GLANCE
Casablanca-Settat Regional
Investment CenterWebsite
https://casainvest.ma/en

Industry
Government

Number of Users
500

Sophos Solutions
4* XG 210 Rev.3 Security
Appliance - EU/UK power cord
4* XG 210 EnterpriseGuard with
Enhanced Support - 12 MOS
1* XG 310 rev. 2 Security
Appliance - EU/UK power cord
1* XG 310 EnterpriseGuard with
Enhanced Support - 12 MOS

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY CASABLANCA-SETTAT REGIONAL INVESTMENT CENTER‘For us cutting-edge protection guarantees our network perimeter is safe
from advanced threats. It’s important that this protection is not limited toour head office but extends to our branch offices whose networks can also
be susceptible to sophisticated threats. With Sophos, we were able to boost
our network security, secure our processes, and achieve peace of mind
knowing our organizations and distributed locations can avoid any risk.’
Mrs. HAKIMI Loubna, Responsable du Service Digitalisation, Centre Régional d’Investissement - Région Casablanca-Settat

Challenges
Ì The need to adhere to Morocco’s dataprotection law n° 09-08 that seeks to driveorganizations to institute and enforce security
protocols that protect personal information.

Ì A small IT team tasked with managing thesecurity requirements of an organization
spread across multiple offices.

Ì Ever-increasing concerns regarding the evolving
threat landscape and innovative threat actors
which could exploit network vulnerabilities

Ì Interest in establishing proper security
measures to serve the organization’s
Business Continuity Plan.

Ì Substantial security gaps because of
unprotected branch offices, which could place
the network and critical sensitive data at risk.

Security as a Business
Challenge
Security is a critical business initiative at
Casablanca-Settat Regional Investment Center.
The 10-member strong IT team led by Mrs. Hakimi
Loubna, Responsable du Service Digitalisation
recognizes the huge role played by security asa business enabler. “Security is a key pillar of abusiness’s growth initiative and in a rapidly evolving
threat scenario, we cannot afford to be lax about
our cybersecurity infrastructure,” says Mrs. Loubna.
The IT team understands that unprotectedareas can allow the easiest means of gaining
unauthorized network access to attackers. The
team was therefore looking for a network security
solution for not only its HQ but also its branch

offices, which could be managed remotely. Theidea behind remote security management wasto ensure the team could optimally manage thesecurity needs spread across different locations.
The Casablanca-Settat Regional Investment Centeris growing quickly, adding additional investors
and projects. This growth is tied in with increasing
amount of both organizational and client datathat needs to be protected. The team required anindustry-leading firewall solution which allowed
the organization to meet all of their security goals.

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY CASABLANCA-SETTAT REGIONAL INVESTMENT CENTER

The Journey Towards
Sophos as a Security
Vendor of Choice
Mrs. Loubna and her team decided to thoroughly
research the security vendor market to identify
a solution to perfectly meet their needs andrequirements. The search was based on certain
prerequisites that would have a comprehensive
impact on the organization’s cybersecurity posture:Ì Identified vulnerabilities needed to be eliminatedÌ Implementation of privileged network
access for authorized personnel only
Ì All network documents must becomplete and accurateÌ The ability to conduct risk assessments
immediately after a serious IT security incident

After searching for a leading-edge security
solution that met all requirements and surpassed
expectations, the customer zeroed in on Sophos
XG Firewall as the ideal security component of
their cybersecurity infrastructure. The IT teamevaluated the pricing, comparing it against thevalue of local team help and support. CasablancaSettat Regional Investment Center had nodoubt that Sophos was the right solution.

Sophos XG Firewall – A
Solution for Security
Challenges and Expectations
Sophos XG Firewall offers Centre Régionald’Investissement - Région Casablanca-Settat
protection to stop advanced attacks and threats,
network security, and network access is granted
to trusted users only. Deployed at its heard

quarters and branch offices, XG Firewall creates
an extended security web that is an impenetrablesafeguard against an evolving threat landscape.
Going beyond legacy server and network protection,
the Sophos XG Firewall’s next-gen intrusion
prevention system delivers advanced protection
from all types of known and unknown threats
and also secures all network users and apps.
The organization also benefits from Sophos’ Web
Protection engine, driven by intelligence fromSophosLabs. The SophosLabs team provides
unbeatable analysis capabilities such as behavioral
analysis and origin reputation to protect the network
against sophisticated multi-stage attacks launchedfrom the web. To further enhance the organization’s
security posture, features like pharming protection,
guard against phishing attacks while deep HTTPS
scanning looks through encrypted traffic.

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY CASABLANCA-SETTAT REGIONAL INVESTMENT CENTER

The IT Team utilizes Sophos XG Firewall toimplement and enforce rules and polices to restrict
user access based on user identity. The team also
leverages the graphics visibility offered by network
components across remote sites to maintainaccurate network documentation. XG Firewall not
only helps Casablanca-Settat Regional Investment
Center identify vulnerabilities, but also provides
the vulnerability location on the network. Thishas helped Mrs. Loubna and her team move fromreactive to a proactive and a far more beneficial
cybersecurity model.

Deployment Results
The IT team is now able to control the IT
infrastructure costs. Consequently, the mostsubstantial benefit of the move to Sophos XG
Firewall is that the telecommunication costs havedecreased significantly as they no longer have topay a huge amount for MPLS links.
Also, managing the center’s overall security
environment has become simpler and seamless
for the team, thus helping them experience optimal
ROI from Sophos XG Firewall. While previously, it
was only the head office that was protected andremote sites unprotected, the XG Firewall ensuresthat even remote site users receive the same levelof security that the headquarter enjoys. This has
enabled Casablanca-Settat Regional Investment
Center to meet all compliance of the 09-08 dataprotection law.

Sophos partner Innovatech Engineering SARL
was helpful to the customer throughout the entire
process from evaluation to deployment. Innovatech
helped Casablanca-Settat Regional Investment
Center select the right XG Firewall model withdetailed guidance and input. Additionally, thisstrategic partner worked closely with the IT team
to deploy 6 Firewall appliances and customized
security architecture perfectly suited for theorganization’s needs.
Security is no longer a silo and extends to allbranch offices. The unified console has centralized
the organization’s approach to security, which
provides a detailed view of security and anotherstep ahead of cyber threats. The results from XG
Firewall deployment have been so positive thatthe customer is now considering Sophos endpoint
security to bolster the organization’s security evenfurther. “With Sophos Firewall, my organization
has got the kind of protection it needs for its
diverse and distributed networks. It is configured
to handle demanding workloads and has superior
network adaptability. We now confident that wehave complete protection from the evolving threat
landscape and sophisticated threats,” signs off Mrs.
Lubna.

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