ESM Technology Uses BigFix to Help Large Transaction Processing Company Pass Security Audits and Show PCI Compliance
The Challenge
Business Challenge:
The company’s asset information was kept in spreadsheets distributed across different computers in the network. The information was manually maintained but there was not a specific process ruling the updates being done. The objective was to implement a solution that could provide them with 100 percent visibility into what was connected to their networks and could tell them whether those systems were compliant or not. This solution had to be rolled out in less than a three-months’ time frame and this was an extremely challenging deadline given the complexity of the environment and the sensitivity of the information being managed.
The main challenges were the following:
- Provide visibility to all endpoints connected network and show up-to-date configuration details.
- Eliminate weeks of manual work of gathering endpoint inventory stored in multiple spreadsheets to prepare for an audit.
- mprove accuracy and speed of patching. Connie Lamicela, CTO at ESM Technology, explained, “Some tools, compared to BigFix, will deploy patches to target workstations, and sometimes will report back old information or not report back at all. That results in a lot of manual effort. In contrast, BigFix just works and it’s accurate and faster, too.”
- Accurate reporting compliance. Once the company could automatically discover and track endpoints, then demonstrating PCI and patch compliance to regulators in time for the deadline was the next goal to achieve.
The Solution
Transformation:
ESM Technology helped the company implement BigFix and meet the three-month mandate. Using BigFix, the company was able to have a single endpoint management solution spanning multiple platforms to track, report and remediate endpoints in real time instead of relying on a mix of different platform-based solutions.
A senior application analyst commented about how fast BigFix was able to deliver results. He said,” We discovered hundreds of endpoints in just a few hours, and we had asset, patch and compliance data in easy-to-read reports within just a few days.” ESM Technology built custom PCI and CIS checklists using the checklists delivered by BigFix. As a result, proving PCI compliance and passing security audits became easy. The senior analyst at the company said, “BigFix enabled us to eliminate weeks of manual work and processes to prepare for an audit. We can give the BigFix reports directly to the auditors, so when we tell them we’re in compliance, the proof and validation is easy to produce and easy for them to understand.”
The Results
Benefits:
With ESM Technology’s assistance, the customer has:
Visibility to all endpoints connected to their network and ability to track compliance and quickly remediate endpoints which were non-compliant. Moreover, BigFix helped the company quickly discover and bring new endpoints under management as new endpoints joined the network.
Substantially improved patching operations, realizing a first pass patch success rate of over 95%. Since the patch staff spent much less time remediating failed endpoints and troubleshooting endpoints who were not reporting in, the company was able to redeploy staff to other IT projects.
Provided near real-time compliance data. Ms. Lamicela noted, “BigFix provides near real time information because the agent continuously evaluates endpoint every 15 minutes. The agent can also automatically remediate non-compliance if we chose.”
Eliminated weeks of manual work and processes to prepare for an audit. More importantly, the company was able to satisfy regulators by providing them with reports directly from BigFix, reducing the time to value and the exposure of non-compliance.