A multinational oil and gas company has enhanced its ability to manage security and compliance across over 7,000 retail locations with the integration of Splunk, facilitated by RiverSafe. Previously, the IT team faced challenges with their existing Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system in North America, which failed to cover more than 40% of activities related to Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance.
This gap in visibility posed risks for data breaches, while manual data processing and poor data structuring added further burdens on the team's workload.
Implementation of Splunk in North America
Having observed successful outcomes from Splunk deployment in Europe, the company decided to extend this solution to their North American operations. RiverSafe, known for its proficiency with Splunk, partnered with the company’s internal team to orchestrate the deployment.
Together, they developed a customized design blueprint, creating a dedicated Splunk instance within the company's private cloud. This strategic move consolidated siloed data from 15 different sources and 7,000 sites, streamlining accessibility for PCI compliance officers.
Improved PCI Compliance and Security Measures
As a certified Splunk partner, RiverSafe proved its ability to enhance PCI compliance processes
As a certified Splunk partner, RiverSafe demonstrated its ability to enhance PCI compliance processes.
The current setup empowers the in-house team to automate reporting and improve data handling, providing real-time insights into their PCI environment.
Results and Operational Benefits
Post-implementation, the team gained comprehensive visibility and fortified the security of their data, while becoming more efficient in reporting. Key benefits achieved include a notable reduction in the time required for PCI audit evidence collection by 20-30%, and a 15-20% decrease in operational administrative efforts due to fewer manual processes.
The new system also solidifies 24/7 data protection via real-time monitoring and alert capabilities. This visibility across the entire environment enhances the team's capacity to thwart potential fraud and security breaches while providing instant insights into PCI compliance. Immediate alerts for any compliance violations further secure the integrity of the company’s operations.
At the client, a multinational Oil and Gas company, the IT team provides technical support and security reporting to over 7,000 retail sites. Their work includes managing all firewalls, switches, VPNs, servers and network appliances, as well as the challenging job of keeping track of operational and compliance status.
Due to limitations with its existing SIEM solution, the team in North America struggled to get full visibility on over 40% of the activities within its PCI environment. This significant blind spot left the company vulnerable and at high risk of data breaches.
Not only was gaining a complete overview of PCI activity an issue, but the team also had to undertake hours of manual data processing and other activities. This extra workload was partly a result of poor data structuring within the SIEM solution, making it difficult to search.
The solution
Having already seen the benefits of using Splunk within its European team, the client opted to implement the platform to improve security and observability in North America. To help deploy the new solution, they commissioned RiverSafe due to their expertise with Splunk to deliver the implementation in partnership with its internal team.
With the support of RiverSafe, the team created a bespoke design blueprint and built its own Splunk instance within its private cloud environment. This was a significant step for the team, resulting in previously siloed archive data from 15 data sources and 7,000 websites being stored in one space, and creating a one-stop-shop for PCI compliance officers to access the information they need.
As an accredited Splunk partner, RiverSafe was able to deliver expertise in demonstrating PCI compliance, providing the in-house team with the ability to verify compliance by improving data handling and automating reporting.
The outcome
Since RiverSafe successfully implemented Splunk, the team has gained full visibility into their PCI environment, ensuring the security of their data and improving efficiency around reporting. Now, the team is fully equipped to keep on top of both operational and compliance activities.
Benefits achieved by the implementation include:
- 20-30% reduction of time spent on evidence collection for PCI audit
- 15-20% reduction of operational admin time through the removal of manual processes
- 24/7 protection of data and the systems processing it thanks to real-time monitoring and alerting capabilities
- Visibility on the whole environment
- Improved ability to mitigate potential fraud and prevent security breaches
- Instant visibility on PCI compliance across the whole environment
- Immediate notification of any breaches of PCI compliance requirements
