Mississippi Secretary of State's Office Enhances Mobile Security with Check Point SandBlast Mobile

• Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Device Management Platforms
• Robots - Wheeled Robots

• Equipment & Machinery
• Telecommunications

• Inventory Management
• Tamper Detection

• System Integration

The Mississippi Secretary of State's Office faced a significant challenge in providing enterprise-grade protection for Android and iOS mobile devices used by its employees. The office supports approximately 100 state executives, department heads, and directors who use their own mobile devices for business. These high-value targets usually have access to more sensitive information than lower-ranking employees and travel more often, making them attractive targets for cybercriminals. The previous solution couldn’t ensure secure connections for mobile devices to the state’s network, increasing the risk of an attacker breaching the device. The antivirus solution also took up space and processing power on the device, which was a nuisance to users. Additionally, the entire solution was difficult to manage as it wasn’t integrated with the rest of the network or security infrastructure, and there were different processes required for Android and iOS platforms.

The Mississippi Secretary of State's Office oversees business formation and services; charities; public lands; elections and voting; regulation and enforcement; securities; education and publications; and policy and research for the state. It supports approximately 100 state executives, department heads, and directors who use their own mobile devices for business. These high-value targets usually have access to more sensitive information than lower-ranking employees and travel more often, making them attractive targets for cybercriminals. The office was in need of a solution that could provide enterprise-grade protection for these mobile devices and users, while also being easy to manage.

The Secretary of State's Office identified three possible solutions, including Check Point SandBlast Mobile, and conducted proof-of-concept testing. SandBlast Mobile was initially deployed on a small number of devices to see how it worked. SandBlast Mobile provides an extra layer of protection to all mobile devices in their diverse BYOD environment. It has stopped Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks that targeted state executives over public Wi-Fi networks. SandBlast Mobile safeguards data at rest on devices or in motion through the cloud, preventing it from being intercepted by cybercriminals through public Wi-Fi attacks. It also detects malicious network behavior and conditions, disabling suspicious networks and preventing the device from accessing the corporate network when a threat is detected. Through advanced app analysis, SandBlast Mobile captures apps as they are downloaded to devices, and runs each in a virtual, cloud-based environment to analyze its behavior. Approved apps are installed while malicious apps are prevented.

• The implementation of Check Point SandBlast Mobile has brought significant operational benefits to the Mississippi Secretary of State's Office. The team gained peace of mind knowing that all mobile devices in their diverse BYOD environment now have an extra layer of protection. They no longer have to worry about infected devices connecting to the network or cybercriminals gaining unauthorized access to sensitive data through a compromised mobile device. The solution has also simplified the management process, providing consistent protection across Android and iOS platforms. Additionally, SandBlast Mobile delivers a stream of real-time, detailed threat intelligence to the Check Point SmartEvent platform. This data is correlated with Check Point’s ThreatCloud, providing broad threat intelligence that can be used to prevent cyberattacks. The team correlates SandBlast Mobile data with other security system alerts for enhancing security event monitoring, incident response, and risk analysis.

• Reduced installation time per device from 30 minutes to 3 minutes
• Regained hours of productivity through effortless management
• Achieved a 50% cost savings over the previous solution