– It gives us a great sense of security to know that we are working with industry-leading experts
Ivan Talwar, CISO at Kristiania
Kristiania is Norway's largest independent broad-based university college, with over 16 000 students, 800 employees, and a wide range of educational offerings in Oslo, Bergen and online. The vision from 1914 still stands – to offer education to everyone, regardless of age and life situation. Since 2018, Kristiania has experienced 60% growth in its student body, growth that has not been entirely without challenges.
As a university college, there are a number of requirements from regulatory bodies that must be met, including the quality of education and rules in accordance with GDPR and NIS2. Ivan Talwar took over as CISO for Kristiania in 2020, and with a rapidly growing organization, he quickly identified a need to professionalize and systematize the business processes.
– We ran Kristiania like a small organization, but one of our strategic goals was to become more professional, and information security was a key component of our digitalization strategy, Ivan says.
Kristiania conducts a great deal of research, which entails the potential leakage of critical information. In addition, the school aims to become Norway's first private university by 2030. – The education sector is actually ranked third on NSM's list of the sectors most exposed to cyber threats, on a par with the Armed Forces, says Ivan. Working proactively and continuously with IT security therefore naturally has a high priority at Kristiania.
– The first few minutes after an attack are critical, and you need to respond within this time window. If an attack happens at night, we have no one on duty who can detect it and respond to it. That is why we needed a 24/7 service for our security monitoring, says Ivan enthusiastically.
As early as 2020, Ivan was considering artificial intelligence in security solutions. He ended up speaking with Palo Alto, who suggested that they look at Palo Alto products for endpoint security. This conversation also resulted in a suggestion from Palo Alto to speak with one of their partners. – We spoke with a couple of partners, and Netsecurity convinced us with the way they explained their products. This included, among other things, the Managed Detection and Response service. I understood quite quickly that these were people who really knew their stuff, Ivan explains.
Netsecurity's security monitoring service (MDR) integrates continuous monitoring with a proactive response strategy, while ensuring that potential security threats are identified and handled quickly. – What made Netsecurity a natural choice for us was their detailed approach and ability to tailor their services to our environment, Ivan explains
When Kristiania started with the security monitoring service, the close collaboration between Ivan and the advisors at Netsecurity also began. – They are good at identifying our needs and where there may be gaps that can be closed or things that can be improved, says Ivan. For example, Kristiania used to buy its Palo Alto licenses elsewhere, but by working with Netsecurity on this, they have saved costs.
– This has built our trust in Netsecurity, because we know that they are genuinely looking out for our best interests at every stage. Sometimes we disagree, and then we discuss it thoroughly and arrive at the best solution. This is what makes the partnership so strong, Ivan adds.
The collaboration has now lasted for several years. What effects has this had for Kristiania? Ivan first highlights the tangible values, such as a more robust security infrastructure and reports on the number of incidents and how quickly these are handled. – We have some figures to show senior management, and everything is now much more systematic. We have detection protocols and automated response in place, he says.
This means that Kristiania is now saving a lot of time that they previously had to spend on manual processes with their own employees. Competence is another element Ivan highlights. – We have a strong internal team here, but there is still a gap that is difficult to fill without a partner with a broad range of up-to-date expertise.
The shoulders are lower in Kristiania's IT department. – By implementing Netsecurity's solutions, we have been able to focus more on our core business, while feeling confident that our data and systems are protected, Ivan concludes.
