How Brooks Uses Illumio to Stop Ransomware from Running Rampant

“Our highest security priority is to minimize risk for the business. Being in the retail and e-commerce space, strengthening controls against ransomware is at the center of almost everything we do.”

For Senior Security Engineer Ryan Fried, keeping Brooks in the lead of the running gear industry means keeping ransomware and cyberattacks at bay.

In 2021, Fried and his team set out to build resilience against the threat of ransomware. Recognizing that breaches are inevitable, Fried identified the need for segmentation — a proven way to stop breaches from spreading and lock down unauthorized access to servers.

After evaluating Illumio’s Zero Trust Segmentation platform, its modern approach to breach containment was exactly the solution Brooks was looking for, explains Fried:

The lean team needed an easy-to-use solution for a very particular starting point: controlling user-to-server traffic to eliminate unnecessary connections and reduce ransomware’s potential attack surface.

Brooks quickly gained protection of hundreds of Windows servers by selectively applying deny rules with Illumio Core — with zero user impact or downtime. And in the event of a ransomware attack, with one click, the team can activate protections to contain the breach and keep it from spreading to unaffected high-value servers.

Illumio Core has also become a source of invaluable visibility into communications across Brooks’ hybrid, multi-cloud environments, as Fried shares:

The team uses Illumio’s visual mapping and traffic flow telemetry to monitor flows in and out of servers. As a result, Brooks has gained a greater understanding of connectivity and risk than ever before.

Illumio’s application dependency map also allows the team to visually test the impact of its segmentation strategy and policies before moving into enforcement, which has been “a game changer,” according to Fried.

Read the full story to learn more about how Brooks is using Illumio Core to reduce its cyber risk and be better prepared for ransomware.