Good Sam Upgrades Its Security
Posture with a Single Solution

The Good Sam Club makes outdoor adventures a safer and more rewarding experience for more than 2 million members. With a wide range of discounts and services, Good Sam enables recreational vehicle (RV) owners to enjoy their time on the road. Its parent company, Camping World Holdings, is a leading retailer of outdoor recreation products and services.

Taming a Wild Threat Landscape

Millions of North American households are avid campers, with 2.6 million new households joining the ranks in 2017 alone. This enthusiasm – together with an initial public offering in 2016 – resulted in double-digit annual growth for Good Sam. With this new growth and their numerous acquisitions, cyber threats facing the company also increased, but its cyber protection infrastructure did not keep up.

Good Sam originally deployed McAfee Sidewinder firewalls and Cisco ASA devices for their security and remote access capabilities. But as the threat landscape changed radically in the past two years, Good Sam lacked visibility into the advanced threats attacking its business. It had no way to know what threats were lurking in its infrastructure or targeting end users. Good Sam management decided to significantly upgrade its security posture.

“I joined Good Sam to mature its IT and security infrastructure,” said Steve Moran, Director of IT Systems and Security for the company.” Based on my experience with Check Point solutions over many years, it was clear that Check Point would enable us to quickly increase security and visibility with minimal management requirements.

Better than Previous Platforms

Moran began by deploying Check Point 15600 Next Generation Security Gateways in the data center. These firewalls deliver comprehensive multi-layered protections including: URL filtering, IPS, Antivirus, Application Control, Anti-Bot, and Email Security. They also included the award winning Check Point SandBlast Zero-Day Protection with Threat Emulation, which monitors traffic at the CPU level to detect and stop attacks before they evade detection.

Check Point R80 Security Management consolidates views, policy, threat management, and automation into a single console to deliver visibility and control across the entire security infrastructure. Logging, monitoring, event correlation, and reporting are also unified, giving Moran instant insight of security events across the whole network.

“Deployment was flawless,” said Moran. “There’s simply no comparison between Check Point and our previous platforms.”

Unmatched Visibility

The Check Point Solutions gave Moran immediate visibility into malware and other threats hiding in the environment. Check Point SmartEvent enabled him to understand exactly what was active and it automatically correlated logs in real time for investigation and rapid response.

“Check Point automation simplifies everything,” said Moran. “We receive solid data, which gives us control over everything from policy to threat prevention. I can get to a root cause quickly, and when Check Point detects something suspicious or malicious, it stops it.”

Worry Free Work

With Good Sam using SandBlast Network and Threat Emulation they were able to intercept and analyze downloaded files in real time, blocking at least 10 incidents per week. Users receive the files they need, and Moran hasn’t received any complaints. With a stable platform, he checks the SmartConsole weekly but spends minimal time dealing with threats. Check Point frees him up to focus on critical projects that enable Good Sam to sustain its growth, such as replacing legacy network systems and deploying a new virtual infrastructure.

“With Check Point, I don’t have to worry,” said Moran. “The ‘human cost’ is very low, which is a huge added value. It does its job, and that’s the way it should be.”

Scaling Up and Beyond

As Camping World continues to acquire companies, it is increasingly subject to audits and regulatory scrutiny. Check Point predefined and customizable reports give Moran and his management the security data they need to meet requirements.
“No matter how we grow, Check Point will scale with us easily,” said Moran. “It continues to deliver excellent values without requiring us to work harder. What’s not to like about that?”

For more information, visit:
www.checkpoint.com/products/cyber-security-management/