Cybersecurity as a Service for one of the world’s largest agricultural companies

What was our client’s challenge?

As one of the world’s largest providers of fertilizers, services and solutions, the agricultural company was undergoing intense growth and expansion, operating in multiple countries during multiple acquisitions.

But rapid scaling and increasing global activity also introduced new and complex challenges:

• Supporting a large organization with a growing attack surface: Integrating employees, policies and procedures on a global scale required a unique approach to safeguard our client as its attack surface grew. The company needed a cybersecurity managed services provider capable of providing global coverage across different clouds, information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT).
• Protecting IT and OT: Securing the company’s complex IT architecture plus its OT added an additional layer of risk, where not only information and operations were at stake but also the potential for physical harm or loss of human life.
• Providing multilingual support: Given its international presence, the agricultural company required a solution offering multilingual support to ensure smooth communication and seamless execution of security protocols across its diverse, worldwide operations.

To address these challenges, the agricultural company turned to PwC, a global leader in cybersecurity managed services. Together, we created a robust, outcome-based strategy to protect the company’s assets, personnel and business continuity while accommodating its global and multilingual needs.

Describe the solution delivered by our community of solvers

Threat detection and response during periods of rapid change are critical for an organization of this size and complexity. As the company continued to expand its operations, the need for a trusted partner in cybersecurity became increasingly clear.

After briefly exploring alternative providers, the company ultimately partnered with PwC due to our demonstrated expertise in providing robust, outcome-based cybersecurity services worldwide. The goal was to build a more resilient business able to safely navigate complexities and risks while continuing to grow and thrive.

• 24/7/365 Cyber as a Service (CaaS) monitoring: We implemented a comprehensive cybersecurity approach featuring around-the-clock CaaS monitoring with dedicated delivery leads, behavioural analytics, a threat intelligence feed, trends to identify opportunities for automation of alerts and escalation and vulnerability management enhancements to identify and mitigate potential cyber defence weaknesses.
  
• End-to-end teaming: We worked closely with in-house teams, fostering a collaborative approach to cybersecurity for more seamless operations, a better understanding of the company’s unique cybersecurity needs and a more integrated approach to defending against threats.
  
• Smooth onboarding and transition: Our dedication to a seamless client experience ensured the onboarding and transition processes were as smooth as possible. We facilitated the company’s need to maintain business continuity and reduce operational disruption during this critical period.
• Multilingual resource support: To support the company’s international presence, we provided multilingual resource support to ensure effective communication and the seamless execution of security protocols across all territories.
• Industry expertise: Our extensive industry expertise in managing cybersecurity for large, global entities allowed the company to stay ahead of potential threats and confidently navigate the complex threat landscape.

Through PwC Canada’s holistic approach, the agricultural company found a trusted partner committed to enhancing its global cybersecurity capabilities and supporting continued growth and expansion.

Sustained outcomes

Working with PwC Canada, the agricultural company witnessed several significant improvements in its cybersecurity posture, leading to sustainable outcomes across operations.

• Lower mean time to detect and respond: Implementing PwC Canada’s 24/7/365 CaaS monitoring solution significantly decreased the mean time to detect and respond to cybersecurity threats. Rapid threat identification and response capabilities helped reduce potential damage and maintain business continuity.
  
• Improved coverage and compliance: Our client saw improved coverage across its global, multi-cloud and multi-modal operations. Our comprehensive cybersecurity approach ensured robust defenses across all facets of the company’s digital infrastructure. We also helped our client improve compliance with international cybersecurity standards and regulations, reducing potential legal and operational risks.
  
• Return on investment for security controls: Through our strategic cybersecurity services, our client achieved a sustainable return on investment for security controls due to improved efficiencies, better risk mitigation and prevention of potential losses due to cybersecurity incidents.
  
• Enhanced threat intelligence: With continuous monitoring and behavioural analytics, we provided our client with enhanced threat intelligence encompassing the latest information on emerging cyber threats. This enabled our client to proactively update its defences and stay resilient against evolving cyber risks.

• Threat detection and response services: Threat detection and response investigations, using a cross-geography approach that covers our clients 24/7.

• Staying ahead of the game with threat intelligence: Curated and industry-specific security intelligence, dark web and open-source intelligence (OSINT), domain intelligence monitoring, operational metrics and reporting, and threat intelligence feeds and threat tracking.

• Enhanced vulnerability management and attack surface management: Managing attack surface using enhanced and advanced techniques for vulnerability management.

• Securing the digital identity: Identity and access management (IAM) for privileged access management and identity governance and administration, as well as application maintenance for cloud-based, hybrid and on-premises IAM solutions, incident management, monitoring and reporting, change management, device management and monthly reporting.

• Critical cyber controls management: Application maintenance for endpoint detection and response, web proxy, email protection, Splunk, web application firewall (WAF), intrusion detection systems (IDS) and intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and micro segmentation; incident management, monitoring and reporting; change management; device management and monthly and quarterly reporting.

The PwC difference

Our community of solvers provides outcome-based solutions aligned with business objectives to enhance the return on investment and strengthen business resilience. We prioritize collaboration to understand organizations’ unique cybersecurity needs and develop tailored solutions.

We navigate diverse cybersecurity challenges with deep industry knowledge and a commitment to innovation and continuous learning, keeping businesses ahead of evolving threats as they adapt to the dynamic cyber threat landscape.