Secure Computing Brings Advanced Web 2.0 Protection
Widgets & RSS FeedsJoy Global Inc., a worldwide mining machinery and services company, manufactures underground and surface mining equipment. The company offers aftermarket-related services through its market-leading divisions, P & H Mining Equipment and Joy Mining Machinery. Joy Global’s products and related services are used extensively for the mining of coal, copper, iron, gold and other mineral resources. Headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, this global company has offices around the world and employs over 10,000 people, of which approximately 4,000 use the Internet for daily business activities.
The Challenge
Like most organizations today, Internet access is critical for Joy Global. Faced with an aging Web filtering solution that was about to be discontinued, Joy Global needed to take action. Shortcomings of the current solution helped dictate some of the requirements for a replacement.
Streamlined Reporting
Previously, Joy Global used numerous point solutions to report on the Internet use of their distributed employees. Investigation of a user’s Internet activity was very cumbersome and time consuming. Limited authentication methods also required Joy Global to manually match IP addresses with users. A large number of mobile users further complicated this matching game. Additionally, because logs were archived on a daily basis, to run a monthly report meant having to retrieve archived logs.
Flexible Policy Actions
Web filtering actions were too limited. Web sites were set to “allow” or “block” for the entire company, with no role-based parameters available. Users with different roles in the company often required access to specific sites, while other users did not. As a result, an IT staff member had to dedicate about 50 percent of his time to constantly reclassifying Web sites just so specific users could get to the needed information.
Advanced Web 2.0 Protection
Joy Global had a signature-based desktop anti-virus solution. While providing baseline protection, Joy Global was vulnerable to the malware and active code exploits now prevalent on the Web, as well as zero-day attacks, which are not yet included in signature databases.
It is important to note that while today’s innovative and more powerful Web 2.0 applications bring greater convenience to individuals and corporations, the risks associated with Internet access continue to rapidly increase. More advanced, feature-rich Web applications now contain a broader array of vulnerabilities to exploit, and harbor hidden backdoors to the network. Risks are also associated with user-contributed content or with applications and real-time communication. These key attributes, found in many Web 2.0 applications, greatly increase Web use risks, while also allowing cyber-criminals to target attacks at networks around the world at record speed.
The Solution
After evaluating a number of different Web gateway security solutions, Joy Global determined that Secure Computing’s Secure Web (formerly known as Webwasher) appliances were best. “Secure Web gave us the flexibility we needed, along with the additional security we knew we should be implementing,” said Joy Global IT Security Manager Adam Lance.
One of the head-to-head comparisons during the evaluation period was between Secure Web and a solution from Blue Coat. Joy Global found a number of advantages with the Secure Web offering. “Secure Web provides all the functionality on a single appliance, enabling us to keep the number of boxes required for our international deployment down to a minimum. With a Blue Coat deployment, we would have more than double the amount of hardware, since their anti-virus scanning solution requires a separate box,” explains Lance. “And, it is limited to signature-based scanning. We would have had to purchase another solution to get the proactive malware protection offered by Secure Web.” The individual ultimately responsible for administration of the solution also preferred the Secure Web GUI and the central management capabilities it offers, including the ability to easily push configurations out to other systems deployed throughout the world.
The Results
A single Web filtering policy action resulted in immediate cost savings. The coaching feature enables Joy Global to display their Internet usage policy whenever an employee attempts to access a site that appears to be outside the company policy. “For those employees that need access, my IT resource is no longer reclassifying sites for hours a day,” notes Lance. Frequent reminders of the corporate policy help with privacy law compliance in some countries and stop most users from visiting non-business related sites.
Secure Web has also helped to improve users’ Web experience and the arduous task of reporting. By supporting Joy Global’s authentication mechanisms, Secure Web eliminates the need for all users to supply credentials every time they access the Internet. This also means that Secure Web is able to provide user-based reports, eliminating the IP-to-user matching task. In addition, Joy Global can aggregate logs from its many global locations and easily generate detailed reports—including information on all mobile user access.
Joy Global implemented numerous Secure Web appliances at large regional offices throughout the world. All Internet traffic for each region is routed through these appliances, scanning for malware and enforcing Web access policies. Further, while caching was not a critical requirement for Joy Global, the company has been very pleased with the 20-30 percent bandwidth savings it has realized since the Secure Web implementation. “We are really happy with the Secure Web solution. The flexibility and protection we now have is light years beyond where we were,” concludes Lance.
About Joy Global
Joy Global traces its roots back to the late 19th century. Throughout its rich history, the company has been recognized for its quality products and services, and respected for its values. The mining industry is vital to the overall health of the world economy. Today, more than 50 percent of the electricity generated in the U.S. comes from coal-fired power plants. Joy Global expects to continue its role as a leader in assuring that mineral and energy resources are efficiently and carefully extracted, and delivered reliably to meet the requirements of the world economy.
