The Apulian University Hospital has relied on the security vendor's solutions for the protection of over 1,500 workstations including endpoints, laptops and servers
ESET, global leader in the cybersecurity market, has supported the “Ospedali Riuniti” University Hospital of Foggia in the process of internal reorganization of security systems in order to standardize the protection solutions adopted and protect all endpoints and users in carrying out work activities.
The “Riuniti” Polyclinic Company of Foggia was founded as a hospital company in 1997. Integrated with the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Foggia, it carries out assistance, research and teaching functions, constituting, at the same time, the structural element of the Health Service of the Puglia Region as well as of the University System. Classified as a level II hospital, it is able to provide assistance in the acute phase in disciplines of particular care complexity and which require multidisciplinarity. The hospital company today has around 4,000 employees, spread across the various locations, and divided into administrative, technical and healthcare staff.
Until 2020, the company presented an uneven situation in its security systems, characterized mainly by Endpoint Protection solutions adopted only in on-premise mode, both on the client and server side. The greatest criticality of that approach was linked to the difficulties in managing the processes of updating security solutions with a consequent increase in the risk of having endpoints within the company network that were not perfectly updated.
Hence the need to adopt a more structured protection solution which, through cloud technologies, could promptly and homogeneously implement updated security policies on all endpoints, manage users in carrying out their work activities and allow them to deal with increasingly sophisticated and complex cyber attacks. Furthermore, during the pandemic, the company decided to equip its operators with laptops and this led to a further increase in the number of devices to manage and an increase in the need to protect sensitive data managed on all devices.
Starting from 2020, a process of reorganization of the internal systems began within the “Ospedali Riuniti” University Hospital of Foggia which led to the choice of ESET as the security vendor for the protection of over 2,000 workstations including endpoints, laptops and servers.
The technological solution adopted is ESET Protect Advanced, a security solution capable of managing through a single console in the cloud, ESET PROTECT, all devices present within the company system and which also includes: ESET Endpoint Security, for protecting endpoints from ransomware attacks and zero-day threats; ESET Server Security, to extend protection to the servers that contain the information necessary to carry out company operations; ESET Full Disk Encryption which, thanks to the various encryption functions offered, guarantees the security of company data and prevents the loss of the information processed in the event of theft or loss of the device used by employees; ESET Dynamic Threat Defense, to prevent any ransomware attacks through preventive analysis of suspicious files thanks to the included cloud sandbox technology.
“To ensure continuity in the provision of assistance services, we have chosen to rely on ESET's Endpoint Protection solutions, because they are capable of detecting malware before it spreads within the company network -, underlines Luigi Ranieri, Cybersecurity Manager, Head of the ICT office of the Policlinico Riuniti Hospital of Foggia. – For a company like ours that operates in the healthcare sector, being able to use a single cloud console to manage over 1,500 company devices makes the approach to security simpler."
"We are very proud to have been chosen by the "Ospedali Riuniti" University Hospital of Foggia. We work assiduously to protect companies from increasingly frequent and advanced cyber attacks and the implementation of our products in such an important reality in the healthcare world of the Puglia Region confirms once again the validity of our range of solutions which, for over 30 years, has protected over 100 million users worldwide", he adds Fabio Buccigrossi, Country Manager of ESET Italy.
Thanks to the ESET solutions implemented, the healthcare company was able to simplify the task of the IT office by exploiting the potential of a single cloud management console capable of proactively intervening in the event of an attack, resulting in a significant reduction in the security issues to be managed. Furthermore, through email notifications and thanks to reporting activities, the company monitors the status of licenses and the management of the various devices used. With over 1,600 suspicious files detected every month, ESET reduces the possibility of new malware inadvertently spreading within the company network, blocking the provision of essential support services. The implementation of the solutions proposed by ESET allows a timely response to any malicious activities carried out even unintentionally by internal users, thus restoring the state of security. Finally, knowing that you can count on an effective encryption solution allows the healthcare company to manage thousands of sensitive patient data collected during the provision of its services on a daily basis.
The project was carried out in collaboration with Ates Informatica, system integrator part of the Project Group, which has been operating since 1984 in supporting customers with consultancy, design and assistance services.
