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Government / Public Sector (Asia)

Building a Security Program from Ground Up for a Security-Critical Government Agency in Asia

A government agency in Asia facing daily targeted malware and APT attacks from neighboring nation- states had no security program to speak of. Payatu spent four weeks on-site mapping the organization before spending close to two years building its infrastructure, operations, detection and response capability and in-house security skills from the ground up.

Security Program Design & Implementation, Security Operations Center Buildout, Incident Response & Forensics, Security Awareness Training

At a glance

INDUSTRY

Government / Public Sector (Asia)

CLIENT PROFILE

A government agency in Asia under continuous nation-state targeted attack

SERVICES

Security Program Design & Implementation, Security Operations Center Buildout, Incident Response & Forensics, Security Awareness Training

ENGAGEMENT

Four-week assessment followed by a close-to-two-year program build

Key Takeaways

Client – A government agency in Asia under continuous, targeted attack from neighboring nation-states, with no existing security program, infrastructure or in-house skills to respond.

Problem – The agency needed to contain active attacks while simultaneously building a security program from zero to a full, self- sustaining state, within limited resources, funds and time.

What Payatu did – Spent four weeks studying the organization’s departments, infrastructure and architecture, then nearly two years building secure network and computing infrastructure, daily operations, monitoring, incident response and in-house skills.

Outcome – Delivered a hardened infrastructure, an operational malware analysis and forensics lab, monitoring services, and a trained, self-reliant security team supported by an ongoing community outreach program.

the challenge

Why the client called us in

The agency was under continuous, targeted attack from neighboring nation- states, facing malware and APTs daily, with no security program, infrastructure or skills in place to respond. The challenge was twofold: contain the attacks already underway, and build an effective, self-sustaining security program from the ground up, developing in-house skills and infrastructure within limited resources, funds and time. The agency entrusted Payatu with scoping and executing that transformation.

Contain active, nation-state-driven attacks while building long-term defenses
Build network, computing and security operations infrastructure from scratch
Develop in-house skills and competency so the program could sustain itself without external dependency

scope of engagement

What was in scope

Network and computing infrastructure buildout
Secure and accountable daily operations
Security monitoring and incident response center
Skills and competency development for in-house sustainability

Our Approach

How Payatu ran the engagement

01

On-Site Analysis

Spent four weeks visiting the agency's departments and backend infrastructure and interviewing employees to understand the current architecture before building recommendations.

02

Infrastructure Build

Designed and implemented network topology, firewalls, IPS/IDS, honeypots, core network services and a network operation center.

03

Operations Hardening

Stood up identity and access management, SSO and domain control, data management and backup/recovery processes, and clear roles and responsibilities.

04

Detection and Response Capability

Built out protection for networks and endpoints, detection for attacks and anomalies, and response processes covering malware analysis, forensics and incident response.

05

Competency Development

Delivered security basics training for all staff plus specialized training in incident response, forensics, assessments and audits, sustained through continuous training programs.

Key findings

What we found

No Existing Security Program

The agency had no security program, infrastructure or in-house skills in place, while facing daily targeted malware and APT attacks from neighboring nation-states.

Infrastructure and Operations Gaps

Core infrastructure, including network topology, firewalls, IPS/IDS, domain control and backup/recovery, needed to be built from the ground up.

No Detection or Response Capability

The organization had no established process for monitoring, detecting or responding to attacks and no malware analysis or forensics capability.

the outcome

Results and Impact

Over close to two years, Payatu took the agency from having no security program at all to a hardened infrastructure, secure and accountable daily operations, a fully operational malware analysis and forensics lab, and a trained, self-reliant security team.

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