Leading distribution, logistic and courier company DTDC Express relys on global cybersecurity firm Fortinet for bolstering cybersecurity across its 30 global offices. According to senior executives, the logistic firm has modernised its data center and branch firewalls with Fortinet integrated cybersecurity solutions.
DTDC Express is the second largest express distribution company in India in terms of spread and coverage. Their logistic services include business units such as courier and cargo services, e-commerce delivery, e-fulfilment, surface cargo, retail services, international express distribution services and third party logistics. DTDC Express has a presence in more than 500 districts through a large network of 10,500 franchisees that provide last mile connectivity to reach 10,500 PIN code locations. The company handles over 12 million shipments every month, delivering an average of 4 lakh (400,000) parcels every day.
To defend against sophisticated cyber threats seen in recent years and provide identity-based access to applications, DTDC Express decided to upgrade its existing firewall implementation to segment and control its network. The growing business demanded advanced threat protection capabilities with higher throughput to provide real-time connectivity and support for its end-to-end consignment tracking and tracing of shipments. Its network had more than 15,000 users, so device identification and management were critical to provide access based on the type of device, operating system and the IP address connecting to the network.
The company said that the refreshed Fortinet Security Fabric deployment allowed DTDC to secure its network and datacenter with intrusion prevention and detection, content filtering and web filtering, application control and two-factor authentication to protect its web and mobile based tracking applications.
Following a thorough evaluation, DTDC Express selected Fortinet over competitors as its cybersecurity provider because of the Fortinet Security Fabric's ability to deliver comprehensive and collaborative security capabilities across the entire network. Supported by a single source of threat intelligence from FortiGuard Labs, the Fortinet Security Fabric leverages technologies from Fabric-Ready Partners through an open integration ecosystem, and can be extended deep into new network environments with a single click using advanced Fabric Connector technology.
DTDC Express has deployed multiple FortiGate enterprise firewalls to secure its datacenter and branches to ensure high availability and better user management. The company said that FortiGate helps reduce latency, while the significantly higher throughput has helped DTDC turn on multiple security technologies like intrusion prevention, intrusion detection, web filtering, content filtering, application control, device identification and management without compromising user and customer experience.
The internal network segmentation firewall helps DTDC Express create consistent policy and enforcement deep in the network, beyond the perimeter, to manage and secure the lateral movement of data and applications. The overseas branches are now securely connected to the main datacenter through an SSL VPN connection, enabling users to access applications while deploying centralized user policies and control.
Fortinet provides DTDC Express with single-pane-of-glass control of its network infrastructure from one console at the head office. The FortiAnalyzer centralized logging and reporting appliance provides visibility of all devices and users that connect to the network, easing threat mitigation. FortiGuard Domain Reputation Service provides DTDC Express with a regularly updated list of known, malicious fully qualified domain names. This prevents their DNS servers from reaching known malicious sites, and helps prevent attacks that obfuscate source IPs using hijacked domain names.
“Fortinet's security solutions have been protecting our network for over 12 years now. We have deployed three generations of FortiGate Firewalls that have evolved from a UTM into a comprehensive Security Fabric to protect our network right from the data center to our remote branches and global offices. The FortiGate 3000D Next- Generation Firewall is a very simple-to-manage yet comprehensive security solution that helps us to control access with policies that segregate users based on their roles. A highly secure DNS caching system adds another layer of protection to our network and ensures business continuity,” said Mrinal Chakraborty, Executive VP Technology and Innovation, DTDC Express Ltd.
“DTDC Express has been our customer for 12 years, and we are pleased that through this latest deployment, we can continue to support their digital transformation efforts with our cutting-edge technologies. With Fortinet's unique Security Fabric architecture and our FortiOS 6.0, DTDC has the option to add 200 new security features and capabilities for continuous risk assessment via automation. That will help deal with the issue of scarce security staff and also to continuously maintain compliance posture,” said Rajesh Maurya, Regional Vice President, India & SAARC, Fortinet.
