SecurityHQ and Foxtons - 8 Years of Security Posture Advancements
Foxtons is one of the UK’s leading estate agents. When reevaluating their MSSP needs, Foxtons looked to switch providers and had new demands as they expanded.
Partnership Outcomes
About Foxtons
Founded in 1981, Foxtons provides a range of residential property services across Lettings, Sales, and Financial Services businesses, operating a network of over 60 interconnected branches.
Location: London, UK
Industry: Real Estate
What They Are Protecting: PII Customer Data
Company Size: 1,300+ Employees
‘At SecurityHQ, everyone knows each other. It is the people element that differentiates. Our experience with SecurityHQ has been fantastic.’
The Challenge
The greatest challenge for Foxtons was to ensure that security never became a “tick box exercise”. The company had an MSSP before SecurityHQ but was looking to switch providers.
‘Before partnering with SecurityHQ, we experienced the services of a different MSSP. While using this previous provider, there were many meetings, but no real value-added, and felt like we had just become a number.’ – Gurdip Kundi
Foxtons reviewed the competition but quickly realized that most providers lacked a personal and bespoke approach. Foxtons needed:
- The skills and knowledge to support a large in-house team.
- A security team of experts available 24/7.
- A technology-agnostic approach that worked with Foxtons existing technology.
- A reliable partnership driven by a passion for cyber security.
‘SecurityHQ did not just say ‘Here’s a couple of reports and away you go,’ we have a partnership, not just a service. I can get a service from anyone. A partnership is something you must build and grow. You cannot buy that.’ – Gurdip Kundi
Continual Improvement as Part of the Process
Gurdip identified that in past experiences of onboarding with an MSSP, there was always an element of fine-tuning required.
‘The difference with this partnership is that SecurityHQ updates their SOC and SIEM capabilities in response to industry requirements, but also identifies and brings in new insights not only from incidences in Foxtons’ environment but from their entire network of clients as well.’
– Gurdip Kundi
As a result, Foxtons experienced:
- A reduction of the number of events/incidents raised.
- Fewer false positives.
- Information is raised only when needed for investigation.
‘Over the past 8 years, Foxtons security posture has improved dramatically. If there are any security concerns, I know I can reach out to the SecurityHQ team. We are particularly happy with the tailored approach to our security requirements, and the way SecurityHQ rapidly adapts to the ever-changing threat landscape with us.’
– Gurdip Kundi
Benefit 1: Technical Capabilities Enhanced
Today, Foxtons gets real-time correlational analysis in seconds and incident response immediately.
Critical functions like building Threat Detection Use Cases, integrating tricky log sources to detect malicious activity, or utilizing incident response playbooks formed a large part of the service.
‘The knowledge of the SecurityHQ team is impressive. The technical ability, and the trust we have in that technical knowledge, is crucial to us.’
– Gurdip Kundi
Benefit 2: Rapid Response
Foxtons required a service that provided recommendations and implementation of different policies. Through Managed Endpoint Protection (EPP), these policies were created to identify and reduce exfiltration and malicious software on elements such as ports, as well as monitor all Firewalls, E-mail Security Gateways, and Domain Controllers.
‘Partnering with SecurityHQ has made all the difference to our response time to threats.’
– Gurdip Kundi
Benefit 3: Threat Visibility
To enhance the support and monitoring of Foxtons entire infrastructure and all of Foxtons’ environments, as well as provide visibility and context of threats, SecurityHQ delivered the following elements:
- 24/7 Availability – Around-the-clock monitoring with a global view of threats.
- A Dedicated Cyber Security Manager – A single point of contact that leads weekly meetings between the CSM, Foxtons, and an L3 Analyst to provide collaborative steps and support documentation, backed by data.
- An Executive Monthly Report – A monthly summary to highlight security instances, and customer-specific reports, to show management actions and service quality.
‘SecurityHQ collaborates with us very closely, but also provides context to threat and alert advisories, so we are not just blindly following recommendations and/or actions. SecurityHQ gave us a single pane of glass in terms of reporting so that we can see the forest from the trees, with the right insights to act.’
– Gurdip Kundi
What The Future Holds for the Security of Foxtons
The goal now is to continue to streamline processes, focus on Mean Time to Understand (MTTU), provide an ongoing threat understanding, and conduct proactive threat response, with an eye towards Cloud Security and AI advancements.
‘We have a good relationship with the team, and dialogue is frequent, which forms a great partnership.’
– Gurdip Kundi
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