CUSTOMER CASE STUDY IPSA

Sophos Managed Detection
and Response provides
first-class expertise tomaximise cybersecurity
at the Independent
Parliamentary Standards
Authority
IPSA is the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, the independent
body that regulates and administers the business costs and decides the payand pensions of the 650 elected MPs and their staff in the UK

CUSTOMER-AT-A-GLANCE
IPSA
Industry
Public Sector
Sophos Customer
Since 2018

Sophos Solutions
Managed Services
Managed Detection and ResponseProducts
Sophos Endpoint

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY IPSA

“Ransomware is probably our biggest threat due to the sensitive
data we have. This was a clear, known risk. It was actually theunknown that caused me more worry, and to protect us fromthe unknown we needed access to specialist expertise.“Dan Marsh, Head of IT, IPSAAs the cybersecurity landscape became
increasingly complex over time, the IPSA IT teamrealised it needed constant access to additional
IT security expertise to keep the organisation
safe. They also wanted to release their team fromeveryday cybersecurity monitoring to allow them tofocus on tasks that added more value.
IPSA’s Head of IT, Dan Marsh, leads a small teamat IPSA. Around three years ago they implemented
Sophos Intercept X to protect their estate andwere delighted with the ease of implementationand the level of security it provided. They are now
moving towards a cloud-based infrastructureusing software-as-a-service solutions and their IT
security requirements are shifting as a result.

Business challenges
It was challenging for the IPSA IT team to deliver
the required IT security protection in-house while
managing other projects. IPSA was managing
multiple cybersecurity products all with different
update cycles, from multiple vendors, and some ofthem did not work well together. It took too muchtime to maintain and manage the systems. It wasalso taking too long to investigate and resolve thevarious threats these systems identified.
The IPSA IT team had limited expertise incybersecurity, so the time taken to manage security
threats prevented them from focusing on othermore proactive IT developments that IPSA could
benefit from.

IPSA needed to be confident that their systems
and data were protected, and they required amore proactive approach to IT security. The teamidentified they needed an external cybersecurity
solution that was easy to manage and could work
across their entire IT estate, as well as providing
instant access to expertise and resource they could
rely on to maximise protection.

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY IPSA

The solution
IPSA decided to implement Sophos Managed
Detection and Response (MDR), a 24/7 solutionthat proactively identifies, investigates and resolves
threats, all delivered by an expert team as part of amanaged service.
The organisation had confidence in Sophosbecause they had already deployed Intercept X
a few years before. It also meant that they werefamiliar with the systems which made an easy
installation even easier. As a small team, they weremost excited about the additional pool of expertiseto call on to secure their networks and data. Sophos
MDR would provide two crucial aspects:
Ì More proactive and more effective
IT security provision

Ì More time for Dan’s team to focus on otheractivities, safe in the knowledge that security
was being looked after by the Sophos MDR team
Following a very simple installation, Sophos
immediately provided feedback on IPSA’sconfiguration settings to improve cybersecurity –delivering value from the very outset.

Business benefits
The team at IPSA lists multiple benefits as a resultof implementing Sophos MDR:
Peace of mind
Maintaining IT security across the entire IPSA IT
estate was becoming increasingly challenging
for numerous reasons: the IT infrastructure waschanging to support new ways of working; security
threats were increasing in number and complexity;
threats could happen at any time, taking focus
away from other activities to ensure a resolution.
By investing in Sophos MDR, IPSA has shared IT
security burdens with Sophos, confident that they
are the best people to identify, investigate andresolve security threats.
Increased accountability
As a public funded body IPSA is heavily audited,so having Sophos MDR and its rigorous reports
satisfies the organisation’s Audit, Risk andAssurance Committee. Thanks to Sophos, they
can now tell the Committee, with real authority
and confidence, that their data and systems areappropriately protected.

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY IPSATime savings

Cost savings

According to Dan: “We’re a small team of generalist
IT professionals, so the ever-growing demands ofmaintaining security took up more and more ofour time. With Sophos MDR, our IT team has beenreleased to work on more proactive developments
which bring added value to the organisation.”

IPSA regulates MPs’ business costs, so it has tobe open and transparent when it comes to its own
finances, and providing value for money was a
crucial requirement in this project. Centralising andconsolidating security provision under the Sophos
Central platform has resulted in cost savings andimprovements in performance and efficiency,
delivering on the value-for-money criteria.

Specialist security resource
The Sophos MDR team brings a deep and highly
valuable understanding of the security landscape toIPSA and provides the extra level of expertise thatIPSA wanted.

Ultimately, with Sophos MDR, IPSA has access
to up-to-date and relevant intelligence, giving
the organisation a far more proactive approachto security. By releasing the team from the daily
monitoring and resolution of security threats, they
are now able to move the organisation forward withIT developments that support and further business
operations.

“Sophos brings us
first-class security
insight fromexperience gained
across the wider
security landscape.
Their authority andunderstanding gives
us great confidence
that they’re allover security. I
would definitelyrecommend them.“
Dan Marsh, Head of IT, IPSA

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2022-08-11 CCS-EN (PC)