Comprehensive Data Protection Lets the Eczacıbaşı Group Grow Securely in a Complex, High Stakes Environment

The Eczacıbaşı Group launched nearly 80 years ago from humble beginnings as a pharmaceutical laboratory focused on two products, vitamins and baby food, experiencing wartime shortage. Today, it upholds its commitment to the development of “healthy, high quality, and sustainable” modern lifestyles through rapid innovation, diversifying into dozens of companies in a myriad of businesses. The ability to innovate is critical across the enterprise to elevate quality and service and maintain the companies’ market leadership. Protecting that innovation, along with its reputation as a trustworthy global collaborator, is key

Cultivating a resilient environment for innovation

Its 1942 inception cemented the Eczacıbaşı Group in the Turkish economy; at the time, the country had only been a republic for about two decades, making the enterprise one of the earliest pioneers of Turkey’s private sector. As the nation developed, the group continued to grow, consistently evolving the way it created value by responding to national and international economic challenges—all while keeping its underlying mission in mind.

That success comes with challenges, however. To react quickly to the market, the group must be always at the ready; in the last several decades, that has increasingly meant incorporating new technology into the way its people work; for instance, moving business processes to the cloud and supporting more mobile, roaming users. That, in turn, has opened the door to cybersecurity challenges that evolve not from year to year, but from day to day—or even hour to hour.

Securing critical assets for a positive lasting impact

Research and development, critical to the group’s core business sectors, is what makes its culture of growth and innovation possible—and that leads to a lot of intellectual property, which the group is keen to protect. Patents, product specifications, strategic plans, and more—all containing information that helps each company keep its competitive edge.

Personal data, too, abounds. The sheer size of the group and its holdings means that each has extensive personally identifiable information (PII) and financial information on customers, partners, and employees. One company, as an example, creates smart card-based digital security solutions for mobile telecommunications, transportation, identification, and payment, including for MasterCard, Visa, and American Express. Protecting that data is more than just doing the right thing for people’s privacy and financial wellbeing; it’s complying with national and international laws governing data privacy to avoid hefty fines and to retain the trust of the nation that the enterprise is committed to serving.

Integrating a holistic security solution to protect valuable data

Within the group’s many companies, intertwined in a deeply complex and distributed environment, it could not rely on a patchwork of point products that could miss threat indicators. Instead, a comprehensive, integrated security solution was needed to secure data and systems from malware and prevent data exfiltration from internal and external sources. With no end to its growth in sight, the enterprise also sought a vendor that could scale with it as it expands into new business.

Forcepoint fit all the parameters. With its partnership and strategic guidance, the Eczacıbaşı Group implemented an integrated, scalable solution securing web and email use while also providing comprehensive visibility and protection of critical data. Forcepoint Web, Email, and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) work together to provide holistic security for users and data anytime, anywhere.

Scaling to the hybrid cloud, without the roadblocks

As the group’s growth and diversification led to a more mobile, highly distributed workforce, the Eczacıbaşı Group leveraged Forcepoint’s flexible deployment options to easily manage the complex enterprise hybrid-cloud infrastructure.

Forcepoint provided its unique license mobility across deployment architectures, enabling the enterprise to transform its security without the hassle of switching security vendors or rebuilding policies—all of which could potentially introduce new risks into the IT environment.

Mobile and roaming users, as well as users in distributed offices, are now better and more consistently protected, through policies managed from a single console that makes security easier for IT staff to manage.

Fending off an influx of malware attacks to protect the environment

Forcepoint has proven it can help the group navigate a landscape of constantly evolving cyber challenges. As Turkey experienced an influx of malware several years ago, the company leveraged Forcepoint’s advanced malware detection (AMD) capabilities to more fully protect the business.

AMD’s cloud sandboxing stops malicious activity before it reaches the network, providing security teams with comprehensive, actionable intelligence—and 100% efficacy. Since implementing Forcepoint’s AMD capabilities, the group experienced only rare malware attacks via web or email use.

Protecting valuable data and proving compliance with national and international regulations

As GDPR and other data protection laws are enacted both nationally and internationally, including by Turkey’s own Personal Data Protection Authority, Forcepoint’s partnership helped the group expand its use of Forcepoint DLP and utilize the product’s prebuilt compliance policies. These policies cover the regulations of 80-plus countries, including industry-specific regulations around the protection of health or financial data. Since Forcepoint’s implementation, the group has gained the comprehensive data visibility it needs to ensure its protection and is able to prove compliance with applicable data protection laws and regulations, crucial to its own international businesses and collaboration with partners worldwide.

Partnering to achieve a future vision

Over the years, the Eczacıbaşı Group has proven it can stand the test of time, and its continued close relationship with Forcepoint supports its ability to do so by securing the group’s most valuable data. “We serve as a strategic partner for the customer and act more like an advisor than a vendor,” said Forcepoint account manager Cankat Domanic. “We are growing together, deepening our relationship as their needs evolve.” Moving forward, the group is in talks with Forcepoint about building a workforce protection program to further ensure the security of critical intellectual property and personal data even in the case of negligent or malicious users.

“Together with the Forcepoint products, in a complex environment with many variables, we are able to operate our security processes more easily and reliably and provide traceability,” Eczacıbaşı Group Digital Security and Risk Manager Nurdan Demirci said. “Forcepoint also has a great support team that is there for us whenever we need.”