$200+ Million Credit Union

Network Security, Effective Spam Filtering & Bandwidth Optimization

Background:

ATS has been the credit union’s long-term IT partner who assists with IT strategy planning, implementation, and operations. The credit union is currently operating with over $200 million in assets and about 5,000 members.

Challenges:

Operating in the financial industry with stringent regulations and compliance requirements, the credit union proactively seeks technology approaches that can help it stay on top of the industry’s rules and guidelines, including:
- Secure, efficient communications and data transfer between the credit union and its members or other financial institutions;
- A timely solution to address the sudden disruptions and keep its critical business functions running during its transition to another email platform; and
- A new, effective email spam filtering service to replace the outdated service.

Case Study

Goal:

Address unexpected network issues in a timely manner to minimize disruptions, identify technology trends, and optimize security.

Solutions:

The ATS team quickly detected an interruption caused by the spam filtering service’s platform transition, which prohibited the credit union’s internal staff from accessing email. ATS recommended and implemented Mimecast as a more effective, user-friendly solution for email security, continuity, and management. To provide added peace of mind and a centralized approach to email security, ATS utilized:

Exclaimer Mail Disclaimers to allow system administrators to populate individual users’ signatures for consistency, branding, and regularly-modified banner ads.
ZixGateway Email Encryption to enable the credit union to communicate with National Credit Union Association (NCUA) easily and securely.

For ongoing IT operations, ATS recommended and implemented a variety of solutions that work for the credit union’s forward-thinking, proactive approach to security and business continuity, such as:

Bandwidth management – When the credit union was experiencing slow network speed, ATS implemented Riverbed bandwidth optimization solution to optimize Internet bandwidth capacity.
Firewall and security devices – Besides existing network security measures, ATS also maintained industry-specific security devices that connect the credit union with other financial institutions like the Federal Reserve Banks’ Fedline Access Solution and ShareOne Credit Union Information System Software.
Patch management – The leading patch management solution Shavlik was implemented to constantly manage and update security patches, maintaining the credit union’s compliance regarding secure information including members’ confidential, personal information.

Results:

The regular network and security projects have benefitted the credit union in enhancing security, communications, and member services. For instance:

Mimecast Email Security delivers a user-friendly, simple yet secure email communications among internal staff and with institutions like the NCUA and Federal Reserve.
The Riverbed Bandwidth Optimization solution helped reduce 80% of direct traffic to the Internet, avoiding unproductive bandwidth utilization.

Consistenly meeting compliance and adhering to fast-changing industry guidelines, the credit union continues to bring its members outstanding services as well as peace of mind knowing their critical information is safeguarded.

Working with ATS is a breath of fresh air. ATS takes our information security concerns seriously and advises us how to avoid potential pitfalls with both hardware and software. We are beyond thrilled with ATS and only wish we had selected them a year earlier.

ATS has been our trusted partner in recent upgrades we have made to our IT infrastructure and cyber security. Their account management, project management, and technical teams have all provided top-notch service, guiding us to make informed decisions, managing timelines for multiple projects, and most of all, listening to our needs and making recommendations based on our unique work environment. During the transitions, they have kept us operating smoothly and provided quick and helpful support through their Help Desk.

I just wanted to take a moment to reach out and thank you for the excellent service you and your team have provided with the hosted SEIM solution. AlienVault is great, but the real value comes from your partnership. The appliance would not do nearly as much for us without your monitoring and consulting services. You have always been on top of things and there for us whenever there is an incident. I feel confident in that our network is secure and I am able to report that our board and clients with full assurance.