RMK Marine Protects Customers and Proprietary Design Data with Check Point

“Before we purchased our Checkpoint solution, we used several different kinds of security products to cover different needs. Check Point lets us easily manage all our modules in one management console and keep everything working together smoothly to deliver optimal security to protect our employees and customers.”
– Huseyin Akbaba, IT Manager, RMK

Overview

RMK Marine
RMK Marine is renowned for its high-quality naval and commercial ships, as well as superyachts. Its employees apply advanced technology, complex designs, and integrated engineering solutions to meet stringent client requirements.

Business Challenges

Keeping Customers and Proprietary Data Safe
Like most organizations, RMK Marine relies on its infrastructure to support its essential business operations, from shipping design to business transactions with its global customers.
Security is critical, because the firm’s engineers and designers are constantly working with sensitive proprietary data.

“We need to secure data and designs in our company because they are commercial intellectual property developed by our designers, and they are unique to our organization,” said Huseyin Akbaba, IT Manager at RMK Marine. “Personal data is also important for us. We need to protect our customers’ confidential information and our employee data as well.”

New threats are emerging all the time, and RMK Marine also focuses on protecting its environment from viruses, ransomware, and other threats that could disrupt operations, to keep its business running without interruption.

“We face many security threats today, and are especially concerned about new, increasingly sophisticated attacks,” said Akbaba. “For example, the WannaCry ransomware event really concerned us. We are very committed to preventing that type of intrusion, as well as zero-day threats.”

Solution

Centralized, High Performance Protection
To gain the advanced protection it needed and consolidate its varied security products, RMK Marine deployed Check Point Next Generation Security Gateways to its data center. With the Check Point security architecture, the firm can provide robust threat protection across the 60 servers and 150 clients in its data center, including design servers, file servers, and workstations.

“We are using the IPS, Antivirus, Anti-Spam and Email Security, Application Control, and Mobile Access,” said Akbaba. “Check Point solution is very user-friendly, and enables us to control everything from a single management console.”
To provide an additional layer of protection for email and Internet traffic downloads, Akbaba and his team also deployed the Check Point Sandblast Appliance. Its Threat Emulation prevents infections from undiscovered exploits, zero-day, and targeted attacks. The solution quickly inspects files and runs them in a virtual sandbox to discover malicious behavior, preventing it from entering the network.
“We think performance is one of the most important requirements for serving our customers,” said Akbaba. “Using an appliance solution lets us take advantage of a high-performance solution and high-speed connections. The SandBlast appliance looks at all email attachments and downloads, and examines the attached files. We have seen it successfully prevent several attacks from outside our organization”

A Single Point of Security Control
Managing the solution is simple, using the R80 SmartConsole which provides complete administrative control via a single pane of glass.

“Check Point R80 helps my team support concurrent administration for fast updates and rapid policy imports,” said Akbaba. “We like the single management console, as well as tools like the search menu, which is very easy to use.”

Results

Enhancing Security and Business Agility
The versatile Check Point solution shined when the global pandemic forced RMK Marine to rapidly migrate its workforce to remote connections. The company was able to quickly pivot to a new work model to accommodate its additional remote users, without disrupting operations.

“At the beginning of the pandemic, about 75% of our users started working from home,” said Akbaba. “Our Check Point Next Generation Security Gateways continued to support high performance and reliable connections. It was important for us to give our end users secure conditions and Checkpoint Mobile Access end point clients provided the security and reliability we needed.”

Threat Prevention Provides Proactive Protection
Stopping new and unknown threats was a key requirement for RMK Marine. Its Check Point SandBlast Appliance enables real-time prevention against zero-day, ransomware, and other cyber threats.

“We’re seeing new exploits coming out all the time, and Check Point SandBlast Appliances help us take a more proactive approach to stopping them before they can impact our business operations, or compromise customer data,” said Akbaba.

A Foundation for Long-Term Security
With its complete Check Point solution, RMK Marine has established a robust, scalable foundation to meet not only its current security needs, but future threats. Its Check Point Next Generation Security Gateways, broad set of security controls, and SandBlast Appliance, backed by centralized management on the R80 SmartConsole, provide network security and help make the IT team’s life easier and more secure.

As technology advances, the threat landscape will continue to evolve as well. Fortunately, Check Point will enable RMK Marine to continue to stay ahead of emerging threats, and chart a course for continued success in the years ahead.