Cybersecurity is a 24/7 focus of 2Bsecure, an IBM Business Partner that empowers mid-sized and large organizations across all sectors to protect their systems and data against a rising tide of attacks and exploits. As a result, 2Bsecure has helped Bituach Haklai, a leading insurer in Israel, harden its databases with granular access controls backed by intelligent monitoring.

Addressing growing cybersecurity challenges

Our client, Bituach Haklai, originally offered insurance services to the farming industry. For years, they had no real need to enforce security policies on internal databases. But the combination of rising sophistication in cyberattacks and significant evolution in their business changed things.

They now offer a broader range of insurance products, including car, household and travel, to the general market in Israel, and their customers have 24/7 access to their insurance portfolio and personal details through web and mobile applications. This means that there are more attack surfaces—and more services and developers potentially accessing sensitive data. Because they work with EU customers and suppliers, our client wanted to ensure compliance with standards such as GDPR and NIS2, which meant locking down access to databases containing customer data. Using Guardium® data protection, they were able to provide databases firewall that prevents unauthorized access to critical tables and personal data.

Finding the right solution

When Bituach Haklai approached us for a solution, the key requirements were to stop any attempts at unauthorized access immediately and generate alerts. The difficulty lies in managing exactly what is authorized versus what is unauthorized, across a complex and constantly evolving set of people and services.

We recommended IBM Security Guardium Data Protection, which gave our client not only the database firewalls but also the sophisticated granular access controls and the monitoring and response capabilities they wanted. The solution also offers agentless monitoring capabilities, aligning with Bituach Haklai’s plans for a hybrid cloud architecture.

Locking down systems

Given the round-the-clock nature of our client’s business, 2Bsecure had to carefully plan and execute the deployment to minimize downtime. That’s part of our best-practice approach: we have a proven end-to-end methodology that helps us implement data security systems without disruption.

Currently, Bituach Haklai is using the Guardium solution to protect Microsoft SQL Server databases running on Windows, and they might extend it to their IBM i (AS/400) environment in the future.

Our client has many suppliers, and each one now has precise permissions to access the specific databases they’re supposed to handle. Guardium prevents unauthorized access and allows our client to see whether data is present where it shouldn’t be. They’re also taking advantage of the user-behavior profiling and the risk-spotter feature within Guardium’s active threat analytics capabilities.

We’ve provided training in system management and maintenance, data analysis, dashboards customization and policy configuration to our client so they can manage access rights for themselves, but we remain available around the clock to help resolve any issues or active threats. This can include consultation; assisting with issues, bugs and errors; and scheduled sessions where they share their needs, wants and questions regarding system capabilities. In cybersecurity, it’s valuable to have the peace of mind that comes from expert support!

Partnering to optimize client outcomes

Database security is a tricky topic for many organizations, particularly smaller ones that might lack specialized skills and knowledge. Recognizing this, we’re working with IBM on a new business plan to offer managed services for database security, using Guardium Insight, which supports multitenant environments.

As an IBM Business Partner, it’s great to be able to get quick answers from experts if we have a question about IBM technology—they are responsive and helpful. We really feel like IBM is working with us to make sure every client is fully satisfied, and that makes it a great partnership!

About 2Bsecure

With 250 employees, 2Bsecure is one of the leading cybersecurity specialists in Israel, uniquely offering services across all three pillars of cybersecurity: professional services, consulting and 24/7 managed security services. 2Bsecure is a subsidiary of the Matrix Group, the largest IT company in Israel, employing more than 12,000 people in Israel and globally.