Case Studies > Securing ANSA’s Information with Check Point

Securing ANSA’s Information with Check Point

Technology Category

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Public Cloud
Networks & Connectivity - Cellular

Applicable Industries

National Security & Defense
Telecommunications

Use Cases

Remote Control
Tamper Detection

Services

System Integration

About The Customer

Agenzia ANSA is a leading news agency in Italy and one of the first in the world. It provides complete coverage of Italian and foreign events through 22 offices in Italy and 81 agencies in 74 countries. ANSA supplies news and services to Italian and international media, public and private institutions, national and local governments, political groups, and labor unions. The agency has recently branched out into video and audio content production for the Internet, satellite TV, and cellular phones. Every day, thousands of public users access the ANSA website to read the latest news.

The Challenge

Agenzia ANSA, a leading news agency in Italy and one of the first in the world, faced a significant challenge in ensuring secure remote access for its travelling users. The agency, which provides complete coverage of Italian and foreign events through 22 offices in Italy and 81 agencies in 74 countries, needed to protect its popular portal from intrusion attempts and attacks. ANSA's journalists, working under stressful conditions and extreme deadline pressure, needed to be able to file their stories in a timely manner from anywhere that news is breaking. The agency had relied on VPN-1 Power for years to guarantee secure connections for its remote offices and local bureaus to the home office. However, there was a need for a solution that would allow users to transmit news stories from any location where there is Internet service.

The Solution

ANSA implemented the Connectra Web security gateway to ensure that its users could access the internal network and production systems from anywhere at any time. This solution filled the remaining gap, allowing users to transmit news stories from any location with Internet service. If users were away from the office or did not have their own laptops immediately at hand, they could use public Internet hot spots or borrowed computers. Users could use simple Web browsers to access centralized information and be protected by the SSL encryption in the browsers and the advanced security functions that Connectra provides. Additionally, Connectra allowed ANSA to extend more applications to journalists in the field. The SSL Network Extender, included as part of Connectra, enabled remote users to access non-Web applications via an Internet connection as though they were on the internal company LAN.

Operational Impact

The implementation of Connectra has provided ANSA with a high level of security and flexibility. It has allowed the agency to ensure that its information always travels with the greatest possible protection. With the issue of secure, anywhere remote access resolved, ANSA can now focus on scaling Connectra into a larger configuration to ensure higher performance and greater availability that is critical to a worldwide news organization. Another objective is to expand the number of applications users can access, which will be made possible by the SSL Network Extender.