north 40 outfitters case study.pdf

From Ranches to Routers: How North 40 Outfitters Corrals Cyber Threats

INDUSTRY
Retail

HEADQUARTERS
Great Falls Montana

COMPANY SIZE
1,100 employees

OVERVIEW

North 40 Outfitters is a family owned and operated
business headquartered in Great Falls, Montana.
The company has been in business since 1997 and
has maintained a focus on product lines that serve
the Farm, Ranch, and Outdoor needs of the three-state area where the 12 store locations reside.
They have been serving the greater Spokane area
for over 22 years.

OUR SOLUTION

Harmony Secure Users & Access
Quantum Secure the Network

Harmony Endpoint’s anti-ransomware and threat
protection have been protecting us quite a bit. It’s
nice to have that piece of mind. We’ve been able to
save time with Check Point. Check Point assists us
with identifying malicious threats and remediating
them much quicker than we were able to with others.
Jamie Miller, senior systems administrator, North 40 Outfitters

CHALLENGE

Protecting confidential employee information and customer cardholder data is not only a regulatory
requirement but also essential to good business and gaining trust among employees and customers.
“Security is important for a retailer of any size, but especially to North 40 for PCI DSS compliance and
to protect our customers’ cardholder data”, said Jamie Miller, senior systems administrator at North 40
Outfitters.

Miller explained the need for the retailer to adhere to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
(PCI DSS). Miller says, “We adhere to PCI DSS, and we work very hard to protect our customer card data,” he
added.

Beyond PCI DSS, North 40 Outfitters must safeguard a wealth of sensitive customer and employee data
across their geographically dispersed physical and cloud systems. Phishing emails are the most common way
criminals initiate attacks. “We are very focused on phishing attacks,” Miller said.

To ensure North 40 Outfitters could maintain its PCI DSS compliance and effectively secure its email, device
and on-premises systems, Miller and the security team began looking for a partner that could help them
meet these cyber security challenges effectively.

SOLUTION

As the team at North 40 Outfitters got closer to their final partner, the team ran a test where they set their
former email security solution against Harmony Email & Collaboration to see which would identify and block
more threats. Harmony Email & Collaboration proved it stopped more email threats, and North 40 Outfitters
opted to use the product’s data loss prevention capabilities. Harmony Email & Collaboration is now deployed
to protect the retailer’s Microsoft services, including its Microsoft 365, Microsoft OneDrive, and Microsoft
SharePoint environment. “We want to protect all of these services as much as possible,” Miller said. Miller
added that he appreciates Harmony Email and Collaboration’s newly integrated AI capabilities that detect and
block sophisticated email threats.

Harmony Endpoint maintains our PCI DSS compliance
by monitoring data that’s leaving and coming into our
workstations, external laptops, remote users, and
anybody else that comes into our environment.
Jamie Miller, senior systems administrator, North 40 Outfitters

Ransomware and many other forms of malware target endpoints everywhere every day. Harmony Endpoint
protects North 40 Outfitters endpoints, whether servers or personal devices running Windows, macOS, Linux,
or a virtual desktop, from advanced threats such as zero-day exploits, ransomware, phishing, and web-based
malware.

In parallel, Miller protects his SD-WAN infrastructure with Quantum SD-WAN Security Gateways. He uses
many Check Point capabilities across his Quantum gateways. “We use the IPS, Antibot, Antivirus, Threat
Prevention Blades. He said, “The Compliance Blade is especially important to maintain our PCI DSS
compliance we hold so dear.”

OUTCOME

Since turning to Check Point, North 40 Outfitter’s security team is now able to meet their PCI DSS mandate
and stop more threats immediately. “The Check Point solutions have made my job quite a bit easier,” Miller
said. “The reporting and the automated quarantine and blocking of malicious traffic has increased my ability
to keep an eye on our entire infrastructure with a lot less manual work,” he explained. Additionally, the AI
integrations help to automatically detect and report security-related events, enabling the security team to
then make educated adjustments to improve their security posture even further.

Check Point’s email, endpoint, and network solutions provide the security coverage throughout North 40
Outfitter’s environment. Quantum SD-WAN provides the SD-WAN security they need, Harmony Email &
Collaboration protects their email and Microsoft 365 services, and Harmony Endpoint provides full endpoint
protection from data loss, ransomware, phishing, and zero-day threats. “Harmony endpoint maintains our
PCI DSS compliance by monitoring data that’s leaving and coming into our
workstations, external laptops, remote users, and anybody else that comes into our environment,” Miller said.
Comprehensive reporting also provides Miller and the security team with insights.

With a Quantum firewall as their gateway, North 40 Outfitters can centrally define its application security
policies and have those policies in effect throughout all its locations; this not only makes Quantum SD-WAN
straightforward to deploy but reduces risk throughout the retailer through consistent policy enforcement. It
also helps Miller, and his team manage security more efficiently, which lowers overhead and costs.

Today, North 40 Outfitters is thrilled with the level of security they’ve attained with Check Point so far. Miller
explained that the team has been monitoring the excellent results very closely.

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.