Supernova Award Category

Digital Safety, Governance, Privacy, and Cybersecurity

The Problem

Western Union saw how mobile threats were continuing to evolve and wanted to make sure they deployed comprehensive protection for mobile devices across multiple threat vectors, but had some requirements that needed to be met by any solution.

• Seamless integration with existing Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution
• There could not be any adverse impact on the end user’s mobile devices
• Maintained user privacy on the mobile devices
• They also desired a solution that was cloud-based, to avoid a cumbersome or complex on-premises deployment.

Other specific challenges Western Union was looking to solve.

• Create an intelligent alerting system with automated incident mitigation
• Ensure Apple and Android devices had software that was always up-to-date
• Power an easy rollout of the app to end users preferably through a public app store
• Keep users, data, and mobile devices safe across the most crucial mobile threat vectors - malware, malicious networks, and OS/configuration vulnerabilities

The Solution

Skycure’s mobile threat detection provides Western Union with the comprehensive solution they need to confidently empower employees on their mobile devices.

Skycure Mobile Threat Defense offers the most complete, accurate and effective protection for mobile devices. Skycure delivers an unparalleled depth of threat intelligence which can predict and detect the broadest range of existing and unknown threats. Skycure’s predictive technology uses a layered approach that leverages massive crowd-sourced threat intelligence, in addition to both device- and server-based analysis, to proactively protect mobile devices from malware, network threats, and app/OS vulnerability exploits, with or without an Internet connection.

The results

Meeting these requirements and solving these challenges was extraordinarily easy with Skycure, which was part of the appeal for Western Union. All that was required was to activate the Skycure account in the cloud for Western Union and integrate with their existing MDM solution. Then, they provided documentation which empowered users to install the mobile app on their phones, and monitored installations to ensure there weren’t any employee gaps. Western Union was able to deploy Skycure to over 6,000 mobile devices with just a few IT staff and without headaches or complications.

Metrics

The Skycure deployment has already been phenomenally successful. By using the Skycure console to track data, Western Union can report the following metrics: over 2,000,000 network tests performed; 200,000 apps analyzed; 7,000 networks monitored; 53,000 security incidents prevented or mitigated. Reporting also shows that Android devices are updated significantly faster than before, and their overall percentage of up-to-date mobile devices is now consistently above 90%.

In addition to these metrics, the user adoption and reception has been strong. Users have gone so far as to thank IT for deploying Skycure, as they appreciate that it is both non-obtrusive, but has already helped them prevent security risks or incidents.

The Technology

Skycure Mobile Threat Defense

Disruptive Factor

The disruptive factor is four-fold. First, mobile security is a huge concern amongst enterprises today. Especially since mobile security requires a significantly different approach than the traditional IT security their used to. Mobile threats evolve daily and so the need for enterprises to be proactive is crucial. Second, Skycure’s solution was purpose-built to address mobile security. It is not re-purposed antivirus or firewall software which was slapped onto mobile devices. Skycure delivers the most advanced technologies to protect mobile devices across threat vectors to keep devices, users, and data safe.

Third, using Skycure is easy. It’s easy to deploy and easy to use, which means any enterprise can achieve full mobile security without the complexity of other solutions. And finally, fourth, Skycure provides immediate security and results. Western Union, has mitigated thousands of mobile risks within just the first week of deployment.

Shining Moment

For this initiative, Western Union has been named a finalist for this year’s ISE West Project Awards and will be a nominee showcase presenter during the ISE West Executive Forum and Awards.