OVERVIEW

LIC Mutual Fund is a leading Indian asset management company that offers a variety of diverse financial products to its customers. LIC Mutual Fund is based in Mumbai, and was established in 1989 by LIC of India, which covers more than 250 million people and is the largest life insurer in the world. The company specializes in equity, exchange traded funds, debt, hybrid, liquid, and portfolio management services.

CHALLENGES

As one of India’s prominent asset management and financial product advisors, LIC Mutual Fund handles large amounts of classified financial data. Any breach of IT security can be a disaster for the company and its customers. This made it extremely important to devise a protection strategy that addressed the security challenges and compliance requirements of a modern data center.

With financial sector cybercrimes increasing, LIC Mutual Fund wanted to take preventive measures and secure its endpoints, network, and data centers. Taking into consideration the increase in targeted attacks and cyber threats in the financial sector, it was important to implement a “Connected Threat Defense and Response Strategy” that would be efficient enough to detect and block threats across all channels.

The company searched for an enterprise-class security solution that would integrate seamlessly with its existing IT infrastructure and scale to meet current and future protection needs. “With ever-growing security risks and a complex IT environment, it was very important to find a flexible, customizable, easy-to-manage solution suitable for our business,” said Prashant Thakkar, Chief Technology Officer and Head of Strategy at LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Limited.

WHY TREND

LIC Mutual Fund needed an IT security partner that stayed ahead of the latest threats and could integrate quickly with its IT ecosystem to deliver cutting-edge protection and maintain high system performance. The choice was easy once they discovered that Trend Micro could provide a complete suite of solutions that provide a multi-layered defense approach to secure endpoints, data centers, and the network.

Trend Micro assured the IT team of LIC Mutual Fund that its servers and endpoints could be defended against zero-day threats, breaches, and business disruptions by adapting a virtual patching mechanism. Simultaneously, Trend Micro offered a strong network defense strategy that provided 360-degree visibility and included counter measures to supplement traditional security measures.

As a result, LIC Mutual Fund and Trend Micro worked closely to ensure that the company’s IT environment could function and grow without being compromised by cyberattacks. “Partnering with Trend Micro led to a harmonious collaboration that helped us combat the challenges of securing and protecting our data and network from potential security risks and cyber threats,” said Thakkar.

SOLUTION

To enable threat protection and data security for users and corporate information across all devices and applications, LIC Mutual Fund implemented Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Complete. Multiple layers of advanced XGen™ security threat and malware protection with techniques like high-fidelity machine learning, behavioral analysis, exploit protection, advanced ransomware protection, file reputation, variant protection, intrusion prevention, command-and-control (C&C) blocking, browser exploit protection, application whitelisting, web reputation, data loss prevention (DLP), encryption, sandbox integration and more make up this solution. It also provides a connected security suite that combines the broadest range of endpoint and mobile threat protection capabilities with multiple layers of email, collaboration, and gateway security.

LIC Mutual Fund also implemented Trend Micro™ Deep Discovery™ to identify malicious content and cyber threats. It provides complete visibility into network traffic, allowing LIC Mutual Fund to stay ahead of purpose-built attacks which evade out-of-date controls, exploit network vulnerabilities, and steal sensitive data, communications, and intellectual property.

Additionally, Trend Micro™ Deep Security™, with robust capabilities for physical, virtual, and cloud servers in a single integrated platform, was deployed for server protection. The centralized management enabled continuous monitoring and vulnerability shielding to save time and resources.

RESULTS

Partnering with Trend Micro significantly improved the security profile of LIC Mutual Fund. The solutions provided visibility into potential security threats and increased protection against zero-day vulnerabilities. Trend Micro solutions also improved operational efficiency by reducing unscheduled patching events, customer code fixes, and improved productivity due to reduced unscheduled downtime.

Deployed as a single, multifunction agent across all environments in the data centers, Trend Micro solutions addressed resource contention issues and helped to simplify security operations. LIC Mutual Fund also benefits from a centralized management solution that provides a single, integrated interface to manage, monitor, and report across multiple layers of security.