Belgian Local Authority Doubles its Protection with Check Point

Commune d’Uccle
Commune d’Uccle is a local authority to the south of Brussels. Whilst it delivers and manages a range of critical services to a population of over 80,000, it must ensure the consistent delivery of local services while integrating with new service providers. This often requires the sharing of sensitive personal data while facing new security threats, including zero-day disruption.

Ensuring continuity of local services
For Commune d’Uccle, it’s become standard practice to share data on the authority’s schools and public housing with national planners. The critical nature of the organization and its wealth of sensitive personal data make it an attractive target for cyber-attacks.

“We’re seeing up to 200 attacks an hour on the network,” says Ugo Dammans, IT manager, Commune d’Uccle. “It became clear that the previous firewall solution was failing to stop every threat that penetrated our network.”

With the organization becoming increasingly mobile, and a desire to promote remote working for 500 staff members, Dammans wanted to upgrade its cybersecurity: “We want employees to be able to work remotely, yet we’re aware that the threat landscape is changing. We want to protect ourselves from current threats, and stay ahead of future issues.”

Addressing security in totality
Dissatisfied with its incumbent firewall product, Dammans assessed other solutions. “It quickly became clear that we needed to look at cybersecurity holistically – from firewalls to antivirus to the cloud,” says Dammans. “The more we explored Check Point, the more we liked it.”

The complete Check Point solution includes Next Generation Threat Prevention & SandBlast™ (NGTX), Mobile Access Software Blade, and Endpoint Security.

“As a municipal authority we have to be aware of our costs,” says Dammans, “but we’ve not hesitated to invest in the security of the administration, the employees, and our citizens.”

Robust security supports a more dynamic workplace
Since switching to Check Point, Commune d’Uccle has not been impacted by a single security breach. Dammans says regular updates from Check Point means it is straightforward to view attack details.

Support, which was an issue with the previous firewall provider, is first rate with Check Point. Dammans adds: “Not only is Check Point strong enough to detect zero-day attacks, it sends us the information on an attack. We’re confident Check Point is analyzing the data to better prevent the next attack.”

The Check Point solution enables Commune d’Uccle to support safe remote work. Fifty staff members now have access to laptops and tablets protected by Check Point Endpoint Security. Dammans says more devices will be added, and that this may eventually lead to employees being able to work off their own, secured devices.

Plans also call for Check Point to be installed on up to 300 devices in the 16 schools under Commune d’Uccle authority.

“Our network is protected by Check Point, and our devices are protected with Check Point Endpoint Security,” says Dammans. “Local and network, we’ve doubled our protection.”