How HGC Protects Global Network with Zero Trust Micro-Segmentation

HGC Global Communications Limited (HGC) is a Hong Kong-based leader in the telecommunications industry, offering security consulting services. With a remote workforce, horizontal expansion, and increasingly complex environments, HGC was looking to fortify its security posture (critical in its industry) to protect a growing global network.

Honing in on micro-segmentation

Chief Digital Officer Jacqueline Teo and her team knew that Zero Trust was the best approach for HGC, and following an external audit, they zeroed in on micro-segmentation. The business needed real-time visibility of the network and protection against lateral movement, and as Teo shares, “...we needed the right solution that would adjust to the inevitable changes in our environment, not require too many human hands and eyes, and not impact our reliable connectivity.”

After evaluating other options, HGC found Illumio to be the perfect fit, as the most “mature” solution that offers both stability and consistency.

Illumio Core for leading Zero Trust micro-segmentation

The telco industry moves quickly, and speed is important when it comes to cybersecurity — bad actors don’t wait until you’re ready!

With Illumio’s real-time visibility and micro-segmentation capabilities, HGC was able to achieve some impressive outcomes:

• Segment all of its high-value assets within four months.
• Replace 10 firewalls and dramatically reduce hardware costs.
• Decrease operational effort by 25% with visual feedback and automated policy creation — eliminating time previously spent trawling through firewall logs.

Since Illumio Core is built on an allowlist model, only connections that are explicitly defined by policy are allowed. This gives HGC confidence that Zero Trust controls are in place to prevent lateral movement.

 "A Zero Trust posture was a necessity for HGC and Illumio accelerated us on that journey," says Teo. "This has given us peace of mind — and you can’t put a price on that.”

A network-agnostic approach

For a global enterprise, HGC is continually expanding its data center and cloud footprint and its digital transformation strategy. Illumio's network-agnostic approach to micro-segmentation ensures security will adapt and scale as they grow — enabling transformation, not disrupting it.

Learn more about HGC’s story here.