Gamers Win with Security Forensics
For a worldwide leader in online gaming technology, service degradation and application issues are important considerations in the ongoing quest for end-user satisfaction. A security breach, however, is an entirely different enemy and can quickly spell ‘game over.’
“If there are any application issues, they want to know about it,” says Viavi Solutions Western Territory Manager, John Prestwich on the video game company’s strategy to deliver a high-quality customer experience. “But even more important to them, is the ability to look at threat mitigation and security threats that are coming in. They need to be able to look at DDoS, and other threats and go back in time, or even live, to try to mitigate those threats.”
Combating an Attack
With millions of users in their online gaming network, it’s only a matter of time before an enterprise like this one becomes a tempting target for hackers. Recently, the company actually did become a victim to one of these types of attacks, but what they did about it demonstrated just the kind of insightful innovation that has set them apart from their peers.
“There were actually two attacks that happened that really brought their network to a standstill,” says Prestwich. “It really upset the gaming community.”
Fortunately, the company had just outfitted their data centers with the Observer Performance Management Platform from Viavi Solutions. The Observer GigaStor appliance caught the whole event, at the packet level, and was ready to provide all the information the company would need to not only discover who accessed their network, but what the criminals did once they got inside.
“They decided to outfit their data centers with two GigaStor Wire Speed appliances,” says Prestwich. “Each data center has two Observer Apex reporting solutions as well. Those report into a ‘super Apex’ and that gives them the ability to set up reporting, which is critical for them.”
Another Line of Defense
The Observer Platform offers enterprise customers an additional level of security, beyond traditional front-line defenses.
“They had IDS tools, they had AV tools but they needed something that would capture over a long history of time and for them that would be potentially three or four days,” says Prestwich. “The Observer Platform can capture traffic and alert them quickly if they are having an event, something that their firewalls or their intrusion detection had let through.”
Learn more about how you can support your existing security strategy with packet-level security forensics in this Viavi Solutions white paper.
