Consumer and business credit reporting and credit risk management solutions agency, Buró de Crédito, needed its network security to scale to meet the business challenges brought about by growing demands for Digital Transformation. Rene Salinas, CIO and CSO, tells us how the company has implemented Forcepoint NGFW to meet the requirements.
Buró de Crédito is in the business of paying attention to the ways people and corporations manage their credit. Nine out of 10 citizens in Mexico and nearly as many businesses rely on the Buró for their credit history. When the company needed to expand aggressively while complying with strict financial regulations, the security team modernised network security with Forcepoint. Today, Buró de Crédito gives Forcepoint NGFW top ratings for scaling secure connectivity to support incredible 46x customer growth with a diverse group of consumer and business clients.
Founded as a credit reporting company 25 years ago, Mexico’s Buró de Crédito has become an information broker, unifying and reporting on the credit history and risk scores for more than 110 million people. Its corporate clients span banking, micro-lending, retail, digital media and telecommunications industries across the country. Security has grown to become a strategic priority at the company, and Rene Salinas, CIO and CSO of Buró de Crédito, now reports to the CEO and provides regular updates to the Board of Directors. Facing strict compliance requirements and growing demands for Digital Transformation, the Buró needed its network security to scale to meet these new business challenges. Positioning itself as a digital information broker, the agency also wanted to expand its business with banks, retailers and other credit grantors, while maintaining tight controls and access to confidential consumer information. The plan called for flexible security technology that was interoperable with customers’ diverse and hybrid infrastructure, while protecting the network against threats and cyberattack.
Forcepoint NGFW rated highest for effectiveness and flexibility
In keeping with its practice of rating suppliers, the Buró annually evaluates the security products it uses against the competition. Even after partnering with Forcepoint for over 17 years, the Buró took nothing for granted. When test results came in for multiple products, the Buró decided to continue its relationship with Forcepoint and upgrade the agency’s firewall to the latest Forcepoint NGFW solution with greater capacity, IPS, VPN clients and centralised management. Implementation, which always gets scrutinised by the agency, was also timely, efficient and smooth. Today, Buró de Crédito has two clusters of NGFW firewall appliances that protect its internal operations and enable secure sharing of financial services data with consumer and business clients.
“We’ve seen the evolution of Forcepoint products and it consistently has better features and functionality compared to its competitors,” said Salinas. “Forcepoint’s security products have been the best for us and our needs.”
Zero Trust approach to access and interoperability leads to bigger business
New requirements for enabling private communications and data sharing between heterogenous vendors, private cloud and public cloud IT environments led Salinas and his team to turn to Forcepoint for help. The flexibility of Forcepoint NGFW with network segmentation, VPN client and Zero Trust access has translated into better service and more business for the Buró. The credit agency’s IT security team can now provide different levels of access and security depending on the service or product being offered to customers and the customer’s specific IT environment. Any client can easily connect to the credit agency’s portal, share information and get reports and other data products securely, regardless of the underlying infrastructure.
“The interoperability of Forcepoint NGFW has helped us grow significantly. We’re constantly doubling the number of clients we serve, all with unique characteristics, environments and sizes,” said Salinas. “We can now reach many types of companies securely, using links that are easy to implement. Regardless of the physical location of our customers or whether they are a large, multinational bank that has millions of accredited clients or a retail store with a few employees, Forcepoint makes it easy for us to provide secure information services to our clients as if they were local. In a very real sense, Forcepoint has opened the way for us and has helped us to generate more business.”
Manageability and simplicity speed up Digital Transformation and cloud adoption
As more of its customers turn to hybrid cloud infrastructures with access through applications, APIs, or the cloud, the partnership with Forcepoint allows Buró to transform in parallel into a future-leaning, digital information company. Forcepoint NGFW’s management console provides reporting that speeds decision-making, pinpoints issues and supports communications with internal and external clients. The credit agency can mitigate the risk of distributing sensitive information using Forcepoint’s centralised controls.
“Many of our customers are migrating their services to hybrid technologies, so security plays a very important role. If the business is transforming, security has to transform along with all the needs of our customers and users,” said Salinas. “We can openly collaborate and become a digital company driven by security technology. We are in position to be an information distribution channel for our users because Forcepoint safeguards our infrastructure, our employees and our clients.”
Remote management was also critical in helping the company and its customers maintain Business Continuity and support new requirements to work from home. Before the pandemic, employees only used PCs at their desk. Forcepoint enabled Buró to adapt practically overnight.
“Forcepoint’s network security not only helps our employees but also many of our customers who have sent some of their employees to work from home. With Forcepoint’s VPN client, we can continue delivering services to employees, customers and partners despite the fact that some users don’t have those remote capabilities. We have been able to keep all our services and applications running without interruption or disruption.”
Giving compliance and security a good rating for the future
As the Buró is more than a credit information company, it is subject to multiple national laws, including the Law on Credit Report Agencies and other regulations. All of them with security at the heart of the matter.
“We have to comply with many privacy, confidentiality, integrity and compliance measures at all levels and security is one of the most critical elements that our customers consider when deciding to use our service,” said Salinas. “They know we are a reliable company that invests in security, that has good processes and that is certified.”
Forcepoint’s focus on protecting users and data aligns with Buró de Crédito’s Digital Transformation strategy. After nearly two decades of partnership, the two companies continue to expand capabilities together with an eye towards a secure future.
“Forcepoint knows our business very well,” said Salinas. “It knows what we need. There’s a culture of security within our company and our employees understand that the type of business we have is built on technology that can securely provide products and services. For without security, there is no business.”
