ab bank case study.pdf

How Aegean Baltic Bank Secures its Financial Data and Remote Workforce

INDUSTRY
Financial

HEADQUARTERS
Greece

COMPANY SIZE
<50

OVERVIEW

Aegean Baltic Bank (AB) is a financial institution based in Greece and is under the regulatory supervision of the central Bank of Greece.

CHALLENGE

OUR SOLUTION

Founded in 2002, AB Bank was initially established as a specialized finance provider of bilateral and syndicated loans to the Greek and international shipping and shipping related sectors. Over the years, it expanded its activities offering private, corporate and investment banking products to a wider range of customers, including private clients and businesses. AB Bank’s main asset is the trust it has built amongst its clientele.

Check Point is a valuable vendor in terms of security solutions and advanced threat protection. Among others, Check Point is also used for the protection of critical environments that require increased security.
Antonis Hassiotis, Senior Network Engineer, Aegean Baltic Bank

“Security is very important to any financial institution,” said Antonis Hassiotis, Senior Network Engineer at AB Bank. “It’s extremely important for us to safeguard our Bank’s network and its business transacting environment by carefully and closely monitoring all types of attacks spread over the internet. Any bank’s reputation can be easily damaged if its systems are attacked or transactions are in any way intercepted. Cyber attacks are the biggest challenge today to bypass and combat.”

To protect the integrity of its financial transactions, AB Bank uses simple-to-manage solutions that protect its environment and user endpoints from viruses, bots, malicious websites and other threats.

SOLUTION

Choosing Check Point, a leader in the security market, was an easy decision for Hassiotis. The versatile solutions provide maximum protection against unknown threats and zero-day attacks. And a full array of integrated security features allows the bank to tailor its security capabilities to its specific needs.

“With the various protection tools that Check Point offers we have increased our security posture,” said Yiannis Kanonis, Information Security Officer at AB Bank.

Check Point Quantum Security Gateways secure encrypted traffic. “HTTPS inspection is a requirement nowadays because 80 percent of the traffic on the internet is encrypted,” said Hassiotis. “It’s paramount to be able to check the content the bank’s users have access to and all internal and external environments they are communicating with. We chose Check Point because it’s very good at that.”

For Kanonis and his team, simple, unified management is essential. “Check Point offers centralized management to the administrators, giving them the ability to identify blocked traffic and investigate suspicious events,” he said.

“Its support for concurrent administration helps make our day-to-day work more efficient.”

OUTCOME

The Check Point architecture was designed to be inherently flexible, enabling AB Bank to build out a security solution specifically for financial services and move fast when conditions change.

“Check Point’s strong point is the fact that there are so many different security options,” said Hassiotis.

“The bank constantly invests in new platforms and focuses on keeping its security infrastructure up to date. Therefore, it is strongly committed to selecting the most valuable security solutions from its vendors,” said Kanonis. AB Bank is constantly evaluating its security posture to stay abreast of new threats throughout its infrastructure, from the data center to endpoints. We are investing in advanced and fresh solutions, taking advantage of the advanced functionalities which enhance and secure the Bank and the end user experience.

ABOUT CHECK POINT

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. is a leading AI-powered, cloud-delivered cyber security platform provider protecting over 100,000 organizations worldwide. Check Point leverages the power of AI everywhere to enhance cyber security efficiency and accuracy through its Infinity Platform, with industry-leading catch rates enabling proactive threat anticipation and smarter, faster response times. The comprehensive platform includes cloud-delivered technologies consisting of Check Point Harmony to secure the workspace, Check Point CloudGuard to secure the cloud, Check Point Quantum to secure the network, and Check Point Infinity Core Services for collaborative security operations and services.