VInet Calls Upon OneLogin Solutions to Help Beston Global Food Company Improve Security Posture
About
Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Adelaide, Australia, VInet Technology Solutions believes every business, regardless of size, benefits from the foundation of a stable, reliable technology platform. With that in mind, the company’s team prides itself on designing and implementing solutions that exceed expectations and support future business growth. To that end, it strives to be at the forefront of technology and develops a portfolio of products and services – including hosted, infrastructure, and managed services – that support companies in achieving their objectives and focusing on their core business.
Starting in 2017, VInet began supporting Beston Global Food Company (BFC) on an ad-hoc consulting basis for basic infrastructure and network needs, including a VPN service. BFC, Australia’s fastest growing food and beverage company – and an award-winning company taking the best of Australian produce to the world with fresh milk supplied by valued farmers – was still a relatively new company at the time. A lean staff and focus on the food industry meant IT was a low priority for BFC. Noting increasing exposure to cyberthreats, BFC’s board and management reviewed gaps in the Information Security environment and engaged VInet to elevate the company’s use of digital technology solutions. That’s when VInet became BFC’s Managed Service Provider (MSP).
Challenges
Though finance is his wheelhouse, Nick Wagner, CFO for BFC, understands the value of ensuring a world-class infrastructure to support the growing needs of the business. “BFC was born out of stitching together multiple companies with their own infrastructure and systems, working independently. We needed to consolidate these.”
At the same time, BFC’s office workers had shifted to working from home when COVID-19 hit. As a result, these employees used the VPN far more to access business-critical information and resources.
However, this wasn’t the only challenge facing BFC. “Bad actors pretending to be our CEO sent emails convincing enough that our accounting staff changed a customer’s bank account details,” explains Wagner.
To better understand its potential info security and cybersecurity risks, BFC engaged KPMG to conduct a cybermaturity assessment. According to Wagner, the result was a 100-plus-page report identifying many areas requiring improvement. These included lack of universal malware and virus protection, outdated versions of Microsoft Windows, inconsistent password policies, and lack of multi-factor authentication (MFA).
“We lacked a security strategy. That’s when VInet stopped serving as just our help desk and became our strategic business partner,” continues Wagner.
Solutions
Once VInet understood BFC’s challenge and objectives, it guided BFC to a best-in-class solution. According to Wagner, “VInet led the way with explanations, best practices, and the best solution for us.”
“After identifying the account compromises that BFC had suffered, we recommended the company add a layer of security. We had already run a proof of concept of OneLogin Protect, Single Sign-On, and MFA and knew that was the right solution,” explains Nathan Delbridge, Senior Technology Consultant for VInet.
BFC employs both traditional office workers and factory workers – people with a range of technology savvy and comfort level whenever a new solution is introduced that impacts their day-to-day. “It was straightforward to implement shared login with OneLogin and make it granular based on employee types. We set up MFA tokens and everything worked as promised. We haven’t had to do anything more to support the implementation,” continues Delbridge.
From the perspective of Wagner and BFC’s employees, the implementation was seamless. After VInet tested the solution with four BFC employees as part of a test group, it rolled OneLogin MFA out in about two weeks to all employees. The solution worked so seamlessly – once it recognized IP addresses and user ids – that BFC employees wondered why they weren’t being prompted to enter a password.
“I explained that’s precisely how the OneLogin solution is meant to work and that it was doing its job if it wasn’t getting in the way,” says Wagner.
Results
According to Wagner, BFC has realized significant benefits using OneLogin solutions. “Our main concern was avoiding paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to scammers, and we no longer feel vulnerable to that. OneLogin has been key to reducing breaches in our email system. In fact, our employees had started distrusting our email system but that trust has returned, making for far more efficient communications.”
“BFC sees plenty more potential to take advantage of OneLogin solutions. While OneLogin MFA is being used on the company’s email and Microsoft 365 apps, BFC plans to make it a requirement on all core applications and programs. “The ability to centralize access to all resources means we are confident that everyone can easily access what’s needed to do their jobs. At the same time, OneLogin helps us ensure employees only access what they need in their roles,” says Wagner.
“VInet is currently integrating OneLogin MFA with BFC’s VPN. This will shore up security without burdening end users as they access critical company resources. And, as BFC migrates to the cloud version of SAP, VInet will integrate the app with OneLogin Single Sign-On. “This will provide user-friendly, highly secure access. Employees will log in once and be good to go,” explains Delbridge.
Wagner looks forward to the ongoing improvements to the company’s security and the user experience. “VInet is helping us get to a point where everything becomes simple and seamless for our employees while our company can be confident it is taking strategic measures to keep our systems and information protected,” he concludes.