During German Bundesliga matches, the IT department plays a significant role. For instance, the Wi-Fi network at a stadium must provide a sophisticated and complex service in real-time. To ensure visitor satisfaction, a football club’s IT infrastructure must have a fully functional Wi-Fi 6 network. Journalists and fans connect with it as well. Therefore, managing the extraordinarily high volume of users is the main difficulty, not just in delivering an appropriate signal. A typical match day uses 50 device groups, 1,472 approved connections, and 8,775 illegitimate connections approximately.
macmon secure, a Berlin, Germany, based firm, was able to rectify the issue. The firm relied heavily on its NAC, Network Access Control.
With macmon NAC, it is easy to find out what devices are on your network and where to locate them. All the gadgets, including PCs, printers, laptops, and technical devices, are constantly recognized, effectively monitored, and secured against unwanted access. Since it’s introduction, macmon NAC has proved itself to be a reliable assistant daily, and on match day.
Since 2003, macmon secure has been offering infrastructure manufacturer agnostic solutions that protect heterogeneous networks from unauthorized access thanks to instant network visibility. macmon NAC is implemented quickly and easily, with significant added value for network security. macmon extends its Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) strategy to all company resources in the cloud with the macmon SDP product and is the only provider of NAC plus SDP with Identity Access Management, hosted in Germany.
“The acquisition by Belden puts us in a unique position, as we combine IT expertise with OT experience on many levels. For example, the leading provider of switches, Hirschmann, is part of the Belden portfolio. Over 1,500 installations have already been carried out by macmon secure, and we achieved a customer satisfaction rate of 95%. Our clients belong to various sectors, including public sector, healthcare, financial services, insurance, science, research, telecommunications, media, trade, industry, transport, and logistics,” explains Christian Bücker, Business Director.
The in-house developed NAC solution is for protecting the network against unauthorized access. Also, the solution surfaces to integrate with other security solutions. At macmon, there is evident differentiation between integrations with endpoint compliance platforms, whole infrastructures, identity stores, and asset management systems. Identity stores and asset management systems are bidirectional integrations.
Besides, macmon secure was a finalist in the category of ‘Best Network Security Solution of the year’ at the 9th Computing Security Awards, held at UK. Also, they were the innovators of the year in 2021 for their product, macmon SDP. The secret to securing access to all corporate resources, whether on-premises or in the cloud, is the macmon Secure Defined Perimeter (SDP) Suite.
The range of reasons companies want to work with macmon is wide and extends from corporate mergers and digitization projects to requirements from politics or associations.
Next steps for improved IT and OT security
“We are currently merging our IT competencies with Belden’s know-how. Extensive training, joint trade fair appearances and joint customer POC´s and meetings demonstrate our competence in the market. Belden Sales naturally acts as a global door opener. We are gradually developing an understanding of the synergies and possible applications of macmon NAC and macmon SDP in combination with Belden hardware. A perfect example is the Hirschmann switches. First major projects are already being implemented,” adds Bücker.
The firm has several years of experience in the CRITIS environment. There are plans to make vital contributions in security solutions for control in OT and IT networks.
There has to be more focus on increasingly realizing product integrations by macmon’s international technology partners through plug-ins. The macmon REST API forms connections with existing and future software solutions so that customers can fully utilize macmon NAC as a central security power in the network. Further, the upcoming years will see macmon establishing additional strategic technology partnerships.
