BDO South Africa covers all bases with multi-layered cyber security strategy

Audit, risk and advisory firm, BDO South Africa implements Panda Security’s comprehensive cyber security solutions.

While many South African organisations take a reactive stance, Nico Fourie (BDO National ICT Director) views a proactive IT security posture as a key pillar of any organisation. Speaking at the ITWeb Security Summit, Fourie warned against becoming complacent or being lured into a false sense of security, emphasising that even when you think you have your affairs in order, cross-checking is imperative.

Fourie and Matthew Stevens, CTO Panda Security Africa, shared details of BDO South Africa’s journey to EDR, advanced endpoint security and machine visibility. In their talk, they explained how Fourie’s understanding of the importance of visibility and control in cyber security led them to explore and implement a multi-layered security strategy.

“In assessing our situation, it’s imperative that we have visibility of endpoints and processes in order to report to our exco and make decisions that positively impact the business. Regulatory compliance in line with GDPR and POPIA also requires increased visibility and control of data,” said Fourie.

To address these challenges, BDO implemented Panda Security’s extensible cyber security model including Adaptive Defense 360 (AD360), and additional modules: Advanced Reporting Tool (ART) and Patch Management. Fourie explained that Panda Security’s multi-tool approach provides increased visibility and holistic reporting, allowing BDO to identify gaps in their security that were not previously apparent.

Vulnerability management is a key part of BDO’s cyber security strategy, with good reason, as recent reports indicate that 98% of attacks occur as a result of known, unpatched vulnerabilities. Panda Patch Management manages software vulnerabilities and their corresponding patches and updates – reducing the attack surface. “In our evaluation of Panda Patch Management, the solution was able to identify vulnerabilities in our network that we thought had been addressed. A key benefit of this solution is how easy it is to manage and deploy patches and updates,” said Fourie.

Panda’s Advanced Reporting Tool (ART) addresses the need for increased visibility and security insights. “The Advanced Reporting Tool’s user data platform provides invaluable analytical data that helps us identify risk factors within the business and allows us to proactively address these issues," explained Fourie.

The increasing volume of security data handled by organisation’s often prevents IT departments from focusing on important insights. ART automates the storage and correlation of data generated by execution processes on endpoints, allowing BDO to pinpoint attacks and identify behavioural aberrations.

For more details about how BDO South Africa built a robust cyber security stack, download the full case study here.