Ministry of Foreign Affairs
License Extension – Managed Security Monitoring Service
The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the country’s central government authority for foreign policy. It ensures relations with other countries, international organizations and integration groups and coordinates activities resulting from bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
In 2020, the ministry needed to strengthen the cybersecurity of its information systems at its headquarters in Prague as well as at almost 120 Czech embassies abroad. It was also necessary to ensure compliance with the requirements of the Czech Cybersecurity Act.
The customer had already been using GREYCORTEX Mendel for several years to their satisfaction. Also, based on this positive experience, they decided to renew and extend their license in 2020 to continue to fully provide the security monitoring of their network.
- Extension of the deployment of GREYCORTEX Mendel to a larger part of their infrastructure.
- Migration configurations from an old sensor.
- The provision of extended monitoring and analysis of the network’s infrastructure.
- Training of the internal security team in the use of Mendel and the possibility to consult with our specialists.
Challenges: License Extension
The customer’s primary requirement was to extend their license along with the acquisition of new hardware due to their increasing storage capacity and data flows. This involved the deployment of a new version of GREYCORTEX Mendel and migrating the configuration from the old sensor.
The limited staffing of the in-house cybersecurity team also required us to provide the managed security monitoring service. Our extensive experience in security allows us to provide the customer with reporting in the context of current events. At the same time, the customer needed detailed training of the internal team in the use of Mendel.
“In the past, our ministry had faced several weaknesses in the cyber security of our information systems, which we eliminated thanks to the deployment of the GREYCORTEX Mendel solution. At the same time, we gained the ability to analyze network traffic at our headquarters in real-time and at a high level of detail. We are also able to detect the first signs of any attempts to attack our systems.”
Jaromír Neubauer, cybersecurity manager of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- The deployment of a new sensor, license extension and the upgrading of GREYCORTEX Mendel to a newer version.
- Through the managed security monitoring service, the customer receives regular security reports of any major and critical incidents on a daily basis and a monthly security audit.
- The expansion of the competencies of the internal team through training, recommendations for risk removal and consultation with our specialists.
Solution: An External Service to Ensure Higher Security
We upgraded to a newer product version, expanded the hardware and migrated the configurations from the old sensor.
The customer especially appreciates our proactive security monitoring, where they receive regular reports and security audits of their network traffic. They can also consult with us on a daily basis on any serious or critical incidents. Our experienced consultant will describe the identified incidents, determine the level of risk and recommend their remediation.
Recommendations can relate to security threats, misconfigurations in the infrastructure or leaving unused accounts active. The service also includes training the internal team, updating the knowledge base of detected security events and assistance with implementing any recommendations.
“We especially appreciate the proactive information provided by GREYCORTEX, for example, in situations where our National Cyber and Information Security Agency issues alerts. In addition to this, we also benefit from consultations with experienced experts who can interpret the findings in Mendel appropriately based on their extensive knowledge of the ministry’s infrastructure,” says analyst Luboš Pilař.
