Maloney Properties Builds a More Secure Network with WatchGuard®

7/28/2019 Maloney Properties Builds a More Secure Network with WatchGuard

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WatchGuard Technologies Network SecurityCustomer Case Study

OverviewCountry or Region: New England

Industry:Real Estate/Property

Management

Company ProfileWith 450 employees across 60 branch

offices, Maloney Properties develops

and manages multi-family and

commercial housing.

Business SituationPassage of Massachusetts stringent

new data protection regulation meant

Maloney Properties needed to refresh

its firewalls and get the powerful

centralized management of the

WatchGuard XTM System Manager to

maintain strong security and

compliance.

SolutionUnified Threat Management from

WatchGuard

Benefits

Powerful centralized management,visibility, and reporting all included

Ease-of-use and simplicity of userinterface for administrators

Premier all-in-one network securitysolution delivers defense-in-depth

while cutting costs

We cant afford to have something not go

right and for a site to go down. I cant even

think of a service call Ive ever had to place

in 10 years of using WatchGuard. With

WatchGuard, we get dependableconnectivity and flexible security at an

excellent value.

Melissa Andrews, Direc tor of Information Technology at

Maloney Properties

Background

Founded in 1981, Wellesley, MA-based Maloney Properties Inc.

develops and manages multi-family residential and commercial

properties. With 450 employees in 60 branch offices spread

throughout the New England area, Maloney Properties manages

80 properties, and approximately 8500 apartment units. With

affordable housing units dominating the mix, Maloney Propertie

manages a multitude of sensitive customer data, including

income data.

Maloney Properties Builds a More Secure

Network with WatchGuard


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Melissa Andrews, Director of

Information Technology at

Maloney Properties

The ChallengeIn 2010, Massachusetts adopted

MA 201 CMR 17.00, one of themost stringent data protection

regulations to emerge across the

nation. The law mandates that all

businesses that store or use

personal information about a

Massachusetts resident must

protect the customers personal

information. The regulation

stipulates specific security

measures (encrypted laptops, up-

to-date firewall protection, etc.)

that organizations mustimplement. Since state-wide

adoption of the regulation, the

Massachusetts Attorney General

has pursued judgments against

companies for non-compliance,

with some organizations being hit

with substantial fines.

Compliance with this regulation

presented a big challenge for us,

relates Melissa Andrews, Directorof Information Technology at

Maloney Properties.

As part of the regulation, Maloney

Properties also was required to

develop a written information

security program. While MA 201

CMR 17.00 applies only to

companies collecting or using

personal data of Massachusetts

residents, regardless of where our

properties are located, we hold

them to this regulatory standard,

says Andrews.

Maloney Properties solicited the

expertise of an independent

auditor to help maintain

compliance with the changes. The

auditor actually recommended

going beyond what the law states,

tells Andrews. Weve been

implementing the auditors

suggestions in our security

decisions.

Evaluating Solutions

Maloney Properties has used

WatchGuard firewalls for over 10

years and theyve always worked

great, but we couldnt centrally

manage the older appliances as

required by the new regulation,

states Andrews. We evaluatedother companies at the request of

our consultant, but my experience

with others is that they are just far

more complicated and challenging

to work with. WatchGuard is the

best solution for us because they

are incredibly user friendly, easy

to navigate, and easy to work

with. We never had an issue with

WatchGuard--so in the end, there

wasnt any reason to switch.

Seamless Implementation of

New WatchGuard XTM Firewalls

Maloney Properties installed a

WatchGuard XTM 5 series appliance

at their Wellesley headquarters and

set-up their branch offices with

XTM 2 series appliances, including

some wireless appliances.

We centrally configured thedevices and then just plopped them

in, says Andrews. With

WatchGuards drag and drop

feature, VPN setup is a snap! We

established virtual tunnels to each

of our 60 locations. Using the


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We evaluated othercompanies at the

request of our

consultant, but my

experience with others is

that they are just far

more complicated and

challenging to work

with. WatchGuard is the

best solution for us

because they are

incredibly user friendly,

easy to navigate,

and easy to work

with.

WatchGuard System Manager

(WSM), we applied standard,

secure configurations to all of ourdevicesthe policy templates really

simplified the process for us.

In recent months, WatchGuard

launched RapidDeploy, a cloud-

based configuration capability that

enables firewalls to self-configure in

the field, making remote set-up of

firewall appliances for MSSPs and

distributed environments quicker

and easier than ever.

WatchGuard System Manager

Simplifies Administration and

Provides Innovative Tools

In refreshing our firewalls with

WatchGuard, we were particularly

excited to start taking advantage of

the WatchGuard System Managers

centralized management and ease-

of-use features, relates Andrews.

WatchGuard System Managerprovides administrators with

powerful centralized management

for WatchGuard XTM solutions,

including:

Multi-device (from 1 to 100s)

management

Ability to manage all feature

sets and security services

through a single pane of glass

Unparalleled network visibility,

reporting (65+ free reports),

and policy management

capabilities

Time-saving capabilities, such

as RapidDeploy and Drag and

Drop VPN

The ability to access the WSM onremote devices with just one click

has proven to be an extremely

beneficial troubleshooting tool,

tells Andrews. One of my favorite

tools within WSM is HostWatch,

which helps me see network traffic

clearly. Its a huge help.

Each of the Maloney Properties

sites leverages five static IPs. One

IP is for the management office,

while the others are for secondary

systems, such as boiler systems and

security systems. Every day, moreand more of our properties are

externalizing the management

interfaces of their security,

solar, boiler, and other systems,

says Andrews. Occasionally the

vendors of those systems dont

know which ports need to be

opened. With a single click, I can

clearly see what traffic is being

blocked and get the information I

need in seconds.

One of the best benefits we get

from centralized management is

the ability to push updates to all

our XTM devices, tells Andrews.

On a monthly basis, we check to

see if a firmware update is

available--if one is, its an enormous

time savings to be able to push out

updates to all 60 XTM devices

simultaneously. Then, with

WatchGuards reporting, we are

able to get a snapshot of when the

firewalls were last updated and

provide this information to

auditors. This helps us stay


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compliant with the mandate [MA

201 CMR 17.00] to have up-to-date

firewall protection.

We use a 3rd party consultant for

a lot of our IT work and they arent

cheap to send on service calls, says

Andrews. Having all of these

technologies manageable from the

WatchGuard System Manager and

also being able to centrally push out

firmware updates rather than

sending someone out to the site--

again, it just saves us so much time

and money.

A Flexible Solution Means

Security Can Grow with

Evolving Needs

Maloney Properties subscribes to

WatchGuards UTM bundle, which

enhances firewall protection with

seamlessly integrated best-in-class

security services powered by

elite partner technologies.

Its incredibly cost-effective to

have all of these technologies

bundled, explains Andrews.

We evaluated Dell SecureWorks

IPSit was very expensive.

WatchGuards IPS solution, for

instance, saves us so much money

by being integrated into the XTM

firewall solution. Although we

havent implemented the

WatchGuard URL filtering orApplication Control at

this time, what we really like about

the WatchGuard XTM appliance is

that it has all these technologies

availableits very flexible. This

provides us with the opportunity to

evaluate these best-in-class security

technologies along the way, and

implement the ones that works for

us.

10+ Years (and Counting) of

Reliable Security from

WatchGuard

We cant afford to have something

not go right and for a site to go

down, declares Andrews. I cant

even think of a service call Ive ever

had to place in 10 years of using

WatchGuard. With WatchGuard, we

get dependable connectivity and

flexible security at an excellent

value.


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ABOUT WATCHGUARD

Since 1996, WatchGuard Technologies has provided reliable, easy-to-manage securityappliances to hundreds of thousands of businesses worldwide. WatchGuards award-winning

extensible threat management (XTM) network security solutions combine firewall, VPN, and a

suite of security services to boost protection in critical attack areas. The extensible content

security (XCS) line of products offers content security across email and web, as well as data loss

prevention. Both product lines help you meet regulatory compliance requirements including PCI

DSS, HIPAA, SOX and GLBA. Represented by more than 15,000 partners in 120 countries,

WatchGuard is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, with offices in North America, Latin

America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. For more information, visitwww.watchguard.com.

Address: 505 Fifth Avenue South, Suite 500, Seattle, WA 98104 U.S.A. Web: www.watchguard.com

U.S. Sales: 1.800.734.9905 International Sales: 1.206.613.0895

2013 WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. WatchGuard and the WatchGuard logo are

either trademarks or registered trademarks of WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. in the United States and/or

other countries. All other trademarks and tradenames are the property of their respective owners. Part

No. WGCE66802_032513
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Maloney Properties Builds a More Secure Network with WatchGuard®