Overview
A leading North American insurance corporation, specialising in life insurance and a broad array of financial products and services, has implemented FastNetMon’s advanced country lockdown feature to enhance its network security posture. This case study explores the application of this feature within the corporation’s network infrastructure, highlighting the technical implementation and the benefits realized.
Challenge
The insurance industry is highly susceptible to cyber threats due to the sensitive nature of the data involved. The corporation faced specific challenges related to potential intrusions from certain geographic regions, which were identified as high-risk due to recurring unauthorized access attempts and other security threats. There was a need to implement a solution that could preemptively block traffic from these regions to ensure compliance and enhance security.
Solution
The corporation opted to utilize FastNetMon’s country lockdown capability, a sophisticated feature designed to block traffic from specified countries. This decision was driven by the need for a robust security measure that could be seamlessly integrated with their existing network infrastructure.
Implementation
The technical team at the insurance corporation followed a structured approach to implement the country lockdown feature:
1. Installation and Configuration: FastNetMon Advanced was installed, and a BGP peering session was established with the corporation’s routers. The necessary plugin for the country lockdown feature was obtained from FastNetMon’s support team.
2. GeoIP Database Integration: The team configured the system to use the GeoIP2-Country database from MaxMind, ensuring that the path to the database was correctly set in the `country_lockdown.json` configuration file. This database is crucial for accurately identifying the geographical source of IP addresses.
3. Defining the Block List: The corporation identified and listed the countries from which traffic needed to be blocked. The list of countries remains confidential, but for the sake of demonstration for this case study, let’s assume the country code “TV” (Tuvalu) was used as an example in the block list to demonstrate the functionality.
4. Allow List Configuration: To ensure legitimate traffic from blocked countries was not affected, specific IP addresses were added to an allow list. This list included IPs that were critical for business operations but originated from the otherwise blocked regions.
5. Execution and Monitoring: The configured script was initially executed to set up the country lockdown, and the system began to announce all prefixes to block using the BGP daemon. The output logs confirmed the successful loading of the GeoIP file, the correct configuration of the next hop, and the detailed list of blocked prefixes. It is important to note that this process requires ongoing monitoring and adjustments. The script is designed to periodically update and re-evaluate the blocking rules based on changes in the GeoIP database, modifications in the list of allowed IP addresses that might affect the list of blocked countries. This continuous monitoring ensures that the network remains protected against emerging threats while accommodating necessary traffic for business continuity.
Results
The implementation of the country lockdown feature provided several key benefits:
Scalability and Flexibility: The solution provided the flexibility to quickly adjust the list of blocked countries based on evolving threat intelligence and compliance requirements.
Enhanced Security Posture: By blocking potentially harmful traffic from high-risk countries, the corporation significantly reduced its exposure to cyber threats originating from those regions.
Compliance Assurance: The feature supported compliance with industry regulations that mandate specific geographic restrictions, thereby protecting the corporation from potential legal and financial penalties.
Operational Efficiency: The automation of the blocking process through BGP announcements ensured that the network’s security measures did not require manual intervention, thereby saving time and reducing the likelihood of human error.
Conclusion
The deployment of FastNetMon’s country lockdown feature at the North American insurance corporation demonstrates a proactive approach to network security. By leveraging geographic data to block traffic from designated countries, the corporation has enhanced its ability to guard against cyber threats while maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements. This case study serves as a model for other organizations in the financial sector seeking to bolster their network defenses through targeted geographic restrictions.
About FastNetMon
FastNetMon delivers versatile DDoS detection software for companies at any scale. With extensive experience in the telecom, mobile, and cloud computing industries, we take pride in preventing DDoS attacks and protecting our customers’ networks to the highest standard.
Find out more: https://fastnetmon.com/