Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 05 | Page 57

COUNTRY FOCUS: ITALY organisations to revert back to its normal operations as soon as possible. Cybersecurity in action One example of how cybersecurity solutions are being used to improve the operations of a business while allowing them to include value-added services, can be seen in financial group Nexi’s Wi-Fi network. Nexi is a provider of digital payment services and infrastructures for banks, enterprises, institutions and public administration. Nexi needed more flexible access to its networks within its main buildings, while keeping the high level of security required by its company policy. It turned to Italtel, which installed more than 200 Cisco access points to empower quality Wi-Fi coverage over all floors of Nexi’s buildings across six locations, including Rome, Anzola in Emilia, Cividale del Friuli and three buildings in Milan. Italtel also deployed the innovative Cisco MSE (ISE) solution to enable secure access to the Wi-Fi network. This deployment made it possible for Nexi’s employees to log in securely with an authentication procedure and geolocation within the building, while providing configuration settings of the Cisco MSE (ISE) solution. supports the customer in managing the process of correcting the vulnerabilities. addressing the future requirements of next- generation security. This efficiency can also enable penetration tests (also known as ethical hacking) against an organisation’s web and mobile applications, and network infrastructure to test their resilience when an attempt is made to exploit critical systems and gain access to sensitive data. The results of these performance tests can then be used to assess network security to prepare customer security infrastructure readiness and to strengthen the protection and resilience in protecting customers’ businesses. However, all these efforts are wasted if these security services are not continuously maintained to foresee attacks. This is where a partner can provide comprehensive protection through a dedicated cybersecurity centre, allowing networks to be continuously monitored and maintained to examine event correlation and analysis, antivirus and filtering management, security access and device management and threat analysis. Choosing a partner – such as Italtel – who can also address how these security solutions are integrated into the network is a great advantage in providing end-to-end protection. By enabling access to security analytics, DDoS protection testing, email, web and VPN security, an approach such as this can provide immediate resolution while www.intelligentcio.com Deep cyber intelligence can then be applied to analyse threats to measure the scale of the suspected attack, providing early warnings to organisations that an attack may be imminent. If an attack is inevitable, a service such as this can enhance incident management, providing fast and effective incident response, including reporting and resolution, to allow Thanks to the efficient implementation of these solutions, Nexi’s Wi-Fi network was operational in less than two months, providing secure access for all its employees across its offices. Nexi’s security intelligence operations are now maintained through Italtel’s certified cybersecurity operation centre, located in Italy. Fighting cybercrime This sort of approach is essential if telecoms want to thrive and enhance the operations of organisations through new technologies, as opposed to further complicating their operations. They must begin to put cybersecurity at the forefront of their strategies. If an end-to- end approach is taken from the outset of cybersecurity deployment, vulnerabilities in the network can be detected to ensure threats don’t amount to attacks. Thus, organisations are provided with the resources to avoid disruption of their services, while avoiding financial and reputational damage. n INTELLIGENTCIO 57