THE CLIENT
Established in 1998, Hunter Industrials is a leading provider of cleaning and sanitation products to customers throughout Australia. Working from locations in Victoria and Queensland, the company’s 32 staff provide a range of offerings including chemicals and disinfectants, accessories, and paper.
THE CHALLENGE
As the company grew during the past 23 years, it had become increasingly reliant on its IT infrastructure. Software applications supported everything from supply chain planning to customer order processing.
As part of the ongoing evolution of this infrastructure, in late 2020 the company deployed Microsoft Office 365. This provided support across multiple business functions including document creation and storage, financial spreadsheets, and email.
Unfortunately, in early 2021, the company fell victim to a cyber-attack. A phishing email with an infected attachment was inadvertently opened leading to the company’s email system being compromised.
"It’s unclear whether data was actually taken but the attack certainly caused significant disruption to our operations. It led to many of our contacts receiving emails that appeared to have come from us that we had not actually sent.”
While the situation was quickly rectified, it served to highlight a gap in the company’s security defences. Working with long-term technology partner Viatek, the firm set out to determine what steps needed to be taken.
THE SOLUTION
After evaluating a range of options, a decision was taken to deploy multi-factor authentication to provide secure access for staff to Office 365.
Azure Active Directory Premium P1 was selected as the platform to provide token-based security services. Apps were then installed on staff member’s smartphones which generated a token each time they needed to access Office 365.
"The deployment went very smoothly and was completed in under a month. Users found it very intuitive to use and were up and running very quickly.”
THE BENEFITS
With the new MFA platform now fully functional, Hunter Industrials is enjoying some significant benefits.
All staff can access Office 365 quickly and easily with the MFA tokens very simple to manage and use. Senior management can relax in the knowledge that the company is now much better protected against future cyber attacks.
The MFA platform also allows staff to log in to the firm’s centralised IT systems when required. Sandra says this has been particularly valuable during the COVID-19 crisis when many people had been forced to work from home.
"We are very pleased with the way the MFA deployment has come together for us,” she says. “It had been something we had been thinking about for some time and, with the benefit of hindsight, should have been pushed much higher on our list of priorities.”
Sandra says the long-term relationship with Viatek will continue as the company grows in coming years.
"The Viatek team has the knowledge and experience that we need to keep our operations flowing smoothly. We look forward to this valuable partnership continue into the future.”
