 Cairo, Egypt, 31 October 2013: Emerging Markets Payments (EMP) Group, a leader in the electronic payment processing industry in the Middle East & Africa (MEA) region based in Cairo, has upgraded its IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) with Sourcefire to provide better visibility on the activities on its clients’ networks. EMP Group installed two Sourcefire sensors, one at its HQ in Cairo and the other at its Nigerian branch, both managed by a centralized FireSIGHT Defense Center appliance based in Cairo. Originally installed over four years’ ago, the system has been updated and upgraded in 2013.
As one of the leaders that delivers world-class electronic payment services to over 130 banks and 30,000 retailers across 45 countries in MEA, EMP Group is committed to remaining at the forefront of the digital currency revolution by creating a payments platform that drives card penetration and other payment types in these emerging markets. Regardless of the client’s geographic location or local practices, EMP Group has to ensure that the system fulfils two aspects for any client: a regulatory aspect; complying with PSI DSS requirements and a business aspect; providing a secure environment to complete its transactions.
said, “Because our clients rely on us to efficiently monitor their networks and ensure it complies with PSI DSS requirements, it was important to have visibility (of all possible scenarios) throughout the system so that we could isolate and pinpoint any abnormal traffic and treat it correctly so that the networks run securely and smoothly for our clients and accordingly their respective clients. We selected Sourcefire’s IPS for the agility and intelligent functionality it provides.”
A team of engineers from FVC, Sourcefire’s value added distributor in MENA, worked with its local Egyptian partner, Security Meter Company, to design the complete solution, configure it to meet the requirements of EMP’s IT team and provide on-site assistance and support. FVC and its partner also provided the first level of training and certification to two members of EMP’s IT team to enable them manage the system efficiently. EMP began by using the open source version in an initial test period of three months before moving to the full commercial version of the software.
After applying the new solution, Fawzy commented, “We are very pleased with the visibility we now have over our systems deployed across our client-base using just a team of two from our IT department. It has improved our efficiency without compromising our control and security.”
Installing Sourcefire’s FireSight, EMP is now able to monitor its internal network using a customised network discovery policy. The new IPS now shows the network’s vulnerabilities, helps to create recommended actions, and in turn helps create the best practice policies for all EMP sites. |
