www.clearmash.com

INDUSTRY: Computer services

BUSINESS: ClearMash provides enterprise SaaS solutions for customer engagement optimization that empower customer service agents and customers with all relevant information to ensure optimal customer interactions every time.

SCOPE: International

SIZE: 100 employees

BUSINESS CHALLENGE: With data volumes and system complexity constantly growing, how could ClearMash keep customer data secure without tying up skilled technical staff in manual processes?

SOLUTION:

Qualys Cloud Platform:

• Qualys Vulnerability Management
• Qualys Policy Compliance
• Qualys Continuous Monitoring
• Qualys Security Configuration Assessment

Why they chose Qualys Cloud Platform:

• Rapid, automated scans ease employee workload
• Easily prioritised threat remediation leaves systems with greater protection
• Scalable and sustainable cloud platform supports future growth

ClearMash Safeguards Customer Data with Efficient Threat Detection and Remediation

For companies providing web-based solutions to enterprise customers, protecting data is both challenging and critically important. ClearMash is prioritising cyber security to stay one step ahead of emerging threats with a new vulnerability management platform.

ClearMash is a provider of enterprise customer engagement optimization software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions headquartered in Herzliya, Israel. Its ClearMash platform supports tailored customer engagement solutions, enabling companies to empower customer service agents and customers with all relevant information to ensure optimal customer interactions every time.

Prioritising Cyber-Security

Having developed and launched its ClearMash platform in the cloud, the company knew that one of its biggest challenges was data security, and that it needed to be fully prepared for any potential threats.

Omri Suissa, Co-Founder at ClearMash, says: "One of our top priorities is the protection of customer data. We've never suffered any major security incidents, but you never know when the next attack is coming – it's better to be prepared. Linked to this is the requirement to keep the platform highly available and performing optimally at all times."

With the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) also coming into effect for European customers, ClearMash faced a growing challenge in managing data and keeping services available. The company subscribed to multiple vulnerability information services and manually assessed its systems for common vulnerabilities. This work was time-consuming and would clearly not scale as the business continued to grow.

"It's not easy to keep data secure today," Omri Suissa continues. "Even though we were doing a good job, we're not a cyber security company, and our current tools took a lot of time and effort to manage. We wanted to free up our employees' time to work on expanding the business and to feel reassured that we weren’t susceptible to cyber-attacks."

Tracking Down Vulnerabilities

ClearMash reviewed the information security market and built a shortlist of preferred providers, before deciding that Qualys was the outstanding choice. Omri Suissa explains: "The flexibility and comprehensiveness of the Qualys solutions was a big selling point for us. We run on Windows and Linux servers, so the fact that Qualys supports both, as well as Microsoft Azure integrations, made deployment easy."

The company chose to implement several solutions in the Qualys Cloud Platform portfolio, beginning with Qualys Vulnerability Management (VM).

"With Qualys VM, we now run daily, automated scans to provide a prioritised overview of potential vulnerabilities across our entire network," continues Omri Suissa. "Usually it only takes ten minutes or so, and we can easily highlight any changes or new findings across all of our services, then prioritise our remediation efforts. We overlay our own risk priorities over Qualys’ suggestions since we have intimate knowledge of our network and can prioritise with greater specificity. Working together, we get a clearer view of risk severity."

In addition to Qualys VM, ClearMash has augmented its offering with Qualys Continuous Monitoring (CM), Qualys Security Configuration Assessment (SCA) and Qualys Policy Compliance (PC).

Omri Suissa elaborates: "Our suite of Qualys solutions helps us to keep on top of emerging vulnerabilities and ensure that our systems are set up in accordance with both internal and industry best practices. Continuous Monitoring can report risks as soon as they’re detected, and we use Security Configuration Assessment continuously to ensure that our network continues to comply with our security protocols. Policy Compliance enables us to confirm that all of our servers are set up correctly and running approved versions of software, helping us meet GDPR guidelines and other data protection laws and ISOs."

He adds: "The Qualys support team were vital to ensuring the implementation process ran smoothly. We had some initial teething issues as you would expect with any new solution, but communication with Qualys was so clear that it wasn’t long before we were up and running smoothly."

ClearMash is currently monitoring the servers that hold all critical and potentially sensitive data related to its SaaS services; the number of servers will double in the near future, and the company will be able to immediately extend Qualys scanning to cover the new assets also.

Reliability and efficiency

The adoption of Qualys solutions has enabled ClearMash to feel reassured that its customers' data is securely stored in the cloud, while also freeing up employees’ valuable time to concentrate on business growth.

"Since we implemented Qualys VM we’ve identified vulnerabilities quickly, and remediated them even more quickly," says Omri Suissa. "We’ve found vulnerabilities that we would never have found before, and knowing they’re gone means we feel much better protected. We feel like we’re ahead of the curve, and that confidence spreads to our customers. Having such cutting-edge data protection tools means customers don’t have to worry about threats to their sensitive data."

ClearMash's employees no longer have to spend hours manually checking servers against manually compiled lists of vulnerabilities, improving detection rates and streamlining remediation.

Omri Suissa explains: "With Qualys VM in place, one person is more than enough to handle scanning our whole network. Saving time in this way means employees are now in a position to deliver direct benefits to our customers, rather than spending their time manually tracking vulnerabilities."

Pleased with the reassurance Qualys solutions have already provided, ClearMash is now looking to expand its platform by adopting Qualys Web Application Scanning (WAS).

"We're currently undergoing a proof-of-concept for WAS and hope that it will be finalised over the next few months," Omri Suissa concludes. "We're happy to implement more Qualys solutions based on our positive experience to date. Qualys has given us the perfect springboard to stay one step ahead of the new generation of online threats."