The British HomeServe Group is the international leader in global solutions for the care and maintenance of homes, businesses and communities. It operates in five countries with a portfolio of more than 8.4 million customers worldwide, to which it brings 25 years of industry expertise. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange (FTSE 250) and has agreements with more than 500 water, gas and electricity supply companies around the world. In Spain it has a team of 1,000 people, in addition to its network of 2,600 self-employed repairers, distributed in more than 20 trades that resolve around 850,000 repairs per year. HomeServe offers utilities and other sectors value-added solutions to improve customer loyalty and customer experience in Spain. Likewise, its line of assistance specialized in the integral management of repairs, installations and maintenance processes and solves the claims of the main insurance companies and collaborates with Real Estate companies by conditioning their real estate assets. The management of its services is completely digitalized, through mobile APP and a user web portal, among others. This means that all sensitive customer and supplier information is in the online environment. 

The challenge

HomeServe was immersed in a process of clear commitment to its evolution and maturity in terms of cybersecurity, focusing its efforts on protecting the cyber resilience of its main information assets. In addition, the company went a step further, implementing the best practices of the market, based on ISO 27001 regarding the Information Security Management System. One of the steps taken in this direction was to define the most important cybersecurity services aimed at monitoring and deterring: among them, the detection of cyberattacks and the vulnerabilities associated with its ICT assets.

Under that scenario, Wise Security started to be a cybersecurity provider to enhance HomeServe's plan has a hybrid environment with on premise services in high availability and services in different cloud, such as Azure, Oracle and Salesforce. HomeServe provides its customers with different state-of-the-art integration technologies to be a benchmark in the professional services market for insurers. It covers from mobile devices of any kind to complex solutions so that the processing of its services is as agile, secure and easy to use for its customers, always from a security perspective, based on confidentiality, integrity and availability of information.

The solution

In 2016, HomeServe decided to strengthen its cybersecurity. It contacted Wise Security, which determined the implementation of the following actions:

• Net Alarm: Improve the early warning network through a more powerful tool that would evolve according to HomeServe's needs.

• Strengthen the activity of Red Teaming to test and continuously test and test HomeServe's systems.

• To promote a CISOaaS model that would mature in the company until it became a permanent part of it.

Sara Martin is the person who has led this project from the beginning, initially in Wise and later became part of the team as Security Manager at HomeServe Spain. With the implementation of its Net Alarm solution, Wise is able to comprehensively monitor all of HomeServe's main systems. This is achieved with a more developed version of its Net Alarm probe, with more powerful hardware. With this, traffic is analyzed and all vulnerabilities are scanned, in addition to having an advanced SIEM (Security Information & Event Management). "This new Wise probe makes it possible to provide customers with a SIEM that can evolve according to their needs. Its dashboard helps to automatically categorize and have a better view of the alerts reported not only by the IDS, but also by any other cybersecurity source, such as a firewall...", explains Luis Bravo.

With the implementation of its Net Alarm solution, Wise is able to comprehensively monitor all of HomeServe's main systems. This is achieved with a more developed version of its Net Alarm probe, with more powerful hardware. With this, traffic is analyzed and all vulnerabilities are scanned, in addition to having an advanced SIEM (Security Information & Event Management). "This new Wise probe makes it possible to provide customers with a SIEM that can evolve according to their needs. Its dashboard helps to automatically categorize and have a better view of the alerts reported not only by the IDS, but also by any other cybersecurity source, such as a firewall...", explains Luis Bravo.

Benefits

HomeServe has proven its credibility as a reliable supplier. And this is of great importance to continue to build trust with its customers, who attach the utmost importance to the reliability of their suppliers. It is crucial that HomeServe's IT platform is kept cyber-secure on all fronts in order to be able to handle the sensitive information, including personal information, of these large companies with confidence. Wise, as a provider, helps not only to keep up with increasingly demanding legal regulations, but also to generate secure and reliable environments for its customers. And this, undoubtedly, gives HomeServe a clear competitive advantage and a differential factor. What Wise Security does:

• Supports HomeServe's entire technological infrastructure.

• Continuous 24X7 service from its own CSOC

• Early warning system Service and Technical Manager MCSS, and Laura Martínez, Service and Technical Manager CCSA of Wise. This solution solves one of the main problems of SIEMs: their profitability or perceived return on investment. With the Wise probe, the client invests in the security of its information only as much as necessary and according to its capabilities.

Wise also performs Ethical Hacking & Vulnerability Assessment functions at HomeServe. Through a continuous Red Teaming, HomeServe has an external team of pentesters that performs actions on internal assets, published on the Internet or on the cloud. And, in addition, from its CISOaaS service, it continues to monitor and provide strategic advice.