In 2022, our client, a leading cryptocurrency company, was looking for a managed security services (MSS) partner who could provide them with 24x7 detection and response capabilities and a threat-led penetration test of their infrastructure.
The Challenge
Cyber security is a fundamental component of our client’s product offering, which provides a suite of solutions to help hedge funds, trading firms, and cryptocurrency exchanges secure their digital assets. Given their vital role within the cryptocurrency space, our client already complied with several security standards (including ISO 27001, SOC 2 and Cyber Essentials Plus) and had an in-house security team to manage their security operations and incident response.
However, to build additional capabilities within their security operations and gain external assurance of their cyber maturity, our client required the support of an MSS provider. Specifically, their goal was to achieve 24x7 Managed Detection and Response (MDR), expand the scope of their security coverage, and implement regular penetration tests across their enterprise and SaaS ecosystems.
The Solution
Our client recognised that finding, recruiting, and training new staff to deliver these capabilities in-house would be a resource-intensive and time-consuming process. With ambitious deadlines to meet, they determined that working with an external partner was the best approach and sought proposals from several MSS providers.
Our client subsequently reviewed these proposals against their selection criteria and chose Bridewell due to our agile methodology and experience within the financial services sector. In particular, our client chose to work with us due to our flexible delivery model that would allow us to tailor an MDR service to fit their SaaS environments while also leveraging their existing capabilities. For example, incorporating their existing cloud-based SIEM to enable detection and response throughout their DevOps pipelines.
In addition to the MDR service, our client’s selection criteria also required the chosen provider to have experience performing penetration tests for the financial services and SaaS sectors. This made our Offensive Security team a good fit, and they were quickly brought on to deliver an Assumed Breach Test of our client’s infrastructure. In comparison to more traditional penetration testing, this allowed our client to understand how their organisation would respond to a cyber attack that had already compromised one of their users or devices.
Using the latest threat intelligence to mimic the behaviours of a real-world threat, this assessment gave our client a realistic understanding of the potential impacts of an attacker bypassing their external perimeter. Throughout the engagement, our MSS and Offensive Security teams worked closely, using insights from the penetration test to drive improvements in their security operations while ensuring minimal impact to our client’s daily operations.
The Results
As a part of Bridewell’s SOC, our client now benefits from 24x7 visibility across their entire estate, higher-fidelity alerts, and a reduced number of low-level tickets. This helps them more accurately detect, analyse, and respond to threats while making more effective use of their internal security team. This has not only helped them uphold their values of being a security-first business but created a competitive advantage in the eyes of their customers.
These improved security capabilities are regularly verified by our Offensive Security team via penetration tests and Red Team assessments, ensuring they take a more proactive approach to cyber security.
