In 2019, Crowder College, a community college in Neosho, Missouri, was hit by a ransomware attack that shut down the college’s email, website, and computer systems. The virus, likely introduced via email, had been dormant in the computer’s system for nearly a year. The college refused to pay the hackers $1.6 million demand, and set to work rebuilding and restoring their systems. Immediately after the ransomware incident, Crowder deployed AppRiver for their email security. However, AppRiver, a Secure Email Gateway (SEG), had limitations. It was not very granular and let a lot of phishing and spam through. Crowder needed a more efficacious solution that wasn’t passive, provided robust security, with better reporting and better customer service.

Wildwood Credit Union had been using Proofpoint for several years and was becoming frustrated. Far too many malicious emails were getting into the inbox. Plus, they felt that the gateway setup was way out-of-date, necessitating a new approach to securing their email. Finally, since protecting personal identifying information is so critical, they needed a far more robust DLP solution. For years, the company used Proofpoint to protect its environment. But after a while, Proofpoint began to disappoint. For one, far too many phishing messages came through to the inbox. That was made worse since the pandemic, since, according to a report, 74% of banks and insurers have experienced a spike in cybercrime since the pandemic. In particular, there has been a 35% increase in phishing, a 35% increase in ransomware, and a 29% increase in internal threats. Wildwood needed a solution that could combat this rise.

OB Design, a leading online fashion retailer in Taiwan, began experiencing invalid traffic flowing into the company’s network during peak hours every night, increasing server workload. This traffic appeared legal, leading the company to add more hosts to keep pace with the growing network demand. However, when it became clear that the increased traffic was not generating a corresponding rise in orders, OB Design realized it was under attack by hackers. The company's initial approach of reviewing the traffic history of each previous day, searching for suspicious IP traffic, and building a blacklist for the firewall proved too time-consuming and ineffective.

The Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) in Mexico faced constant cyber attacks during the 2012 Federal Elections. The attacks were primarily Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (DDoS), aimed at disabling the services of the IFE. The institute had prepared for such issues months in advance, increasing the dedicated bandwidth for the election process over 600Mbs, 300 times over the average Web connection in Mexico. Despite the constant attacks, none were successful in disabling the operation of the Preliminary Program of Electoral Results (PREP) or IFE infrastructure.

Hyve, a leading UK IT service provider specializing in mission-critical cloud hosting, was looking to stand out among competitors in the large UK market. The company aimed to provide the utmost security to its customers while also ensuring continued availability through unhindered access to their systems. In today’s environment of increasingly sophisticated and common attacks, Hyve cannot deliver the performance and satisfaction its customers demand without addressing security threats that plague organizations the world over. To mitigate these risks and meet customer expectations, Hyve’s environment has multiple layers of defense, is ISO-27001 and PCI-DSS certified, and has been architected to prevent client cross-contamination if a problem does occur. Nevertheless, Hyve was still challenged by weaknesses in individual clients’ hosted environments. Being a proactive, security driven company, Hyve have looked for another line of defense to better protect the entire IT environment.

Jagex Games Studio, a Cambridge-based multi-award-winning games developer and publisher, was facing an increase in DDoS attacks for various reasons, including banning known DDoSers, attention-seeking purposes, and those looking for bragging rights. The company also faced extortion attempts, with bad actors threatening to take down the site unless Jagex paid their ransom requests. The company was also threatened with DDoS unless they made changes to the game itself. These instances posed a serious challenge to game availability, which is the lifeblood of the organisation. The company was using a legacy DDoS mitigation solution that was not performing to specifications and was based on time-consuming reactive policies in an industry that demands proactive defense measures.

PersonalizationMall.com, an online retailer, was facing challenges with its existing VPN solution. As more employees required remote access, the Cisco technology they were using no longer delivered acceptable performance. This was especially evident after the company migrated to Windows 7. Mobile users needed the 64‑bit operating system but were unable to connect to the VPN. Another concern was the slow connection speed between office and home, which was limited by the older VPN technology. Users were also experiencing difficulties with dropped calls on VoIP, which was frustrating and negatively affected the business.

Hobsons, an education solution provider, delivers a suite of education-oriented Software as a Service (SaaS)-based applications to colleges and universities. These include web-based course and career planning, recruiting, enrollment, and retention tools. The company's application delivery infrastructure is mission-critical, and it has to manage significant increases in web traffic that coincide with student application and enrollment deadlines. Hobsons also has to support a range of users, including prospective students completing online applications and administrators needing access to the same systems for recruitment efforts and application reviews. The company needed a solution that could easily direct different types of traffic to different pools of servers and manage users’ authorization and access to various applications, without requiring modifications or adjustments on the customer's end.

The Orange County Teachers Federal Credit Union (OCTFCU) offers retail banking services online, at ATMs and in 24 branches spread across the southern-California county. With concurrent sessions as high as 6,000 users per day with $150,000 changing hands every hour, the credit union’s online portal had to be fast, secure, reliable and available around the clock. Simple load balancing between its Web servers became inadequate to this task; seamless failover was needed. The credit union’s server farm had needed load balancers for its backend servers and initially, it had used Cisco’s Local Director and Content Services Switches. That went some way toward keeping applications responsive, but when its banking services went online to the public, the credit union needed something far more reliable: It needed to be able to detect a server’s imminent failure and divert traffic to another server while the faulty server was taken out of the farm for scrutiny. All this had to be done without interruption to its online service, and without customers feeling any “glitch.”

The financial services company was facing an increased rate of cyberattacks and required a new on-premise DDoS mitigation platform at its primary data centers in addition to protection from encrypted network attacks to protect web applications. In recent years, financial services has become one of the industries most targeted by cyberattacks. In addition to facing an array of attack vectors and threats, including hacktivist-backed campaigns and ransom-motivated assaults, it is also overcoming a hodgepodge of various network and application security challenges, including migration to the cloud, application exploits and encrypted traffic management. The bank required a new on-premise DDoS mitigation platform at its primary data centers that could protect them from DDoS attacks without negatively impacting legitimate traffic. In addition, with the percentage of encrypted network traffic increasing, the bank required a solution that could protect their web applications from encrypted floods.

As a provider of data center managed services and technology solutions, Xand’s customers require secure, high performance, highly-available infrastructures for its mission-critical environments. Since, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks can inflict costly and destructive downtime on hosted applications and resources, Xand needed a solution to protect its customers cloud systems and comprehensively guard against user data breaches.

Convergys, a global customer management firm, was facing a challenge in maintaining customer satisfaction and VoIP availability, which are critical to its success. With over 150 call centers in 31 countries and 90 VoIP recorders in its call system, Convergys needed a solution that could load balance over a million voice calls per day across multiple recordings. Any scenario where recordings were lost could result in customer dissatisfaction. To eliminate downtime from regular maintenance of its recorders, Convergys searched for a load balancing solution to support call recording for all of its call centers.

The bank faced a number of challenges, including network expansion, increased dependency on web applications and an increase in the number of cyberattacks. With 400 million users dependent on the bank’s applications to access accounts and related services, the bank must provide high application performance 24x7 for over 180 applications to keep customers satisfied. Due to high network traffic volumes, its existing load balancing solution couldn’t handle the connections per second. Another challenge for this bank is scaling its network to manage international business. Internet banking spans various individual banking divisions, including retail, corporate and consumer, each of which has its own applications and requirements. The bank, which also has to handle large traffic loads from consumer and enterprise customers, was looking for a scalable solution to manage traffic and applications for more than a dozen departments across two data centers. The third challenge for the bank is application security to maintain service availability. Protection of mission-critical application is critical to stay in business. The majority of network traffic that the bank receives is encrypted, which necessitated having the ability to inspect that traffic for attacks.

CCS, a major provider of data access cards in the Czech market, needed to ensure its network was continuously available to service several thousand transactions daily. The company's profits are derived from the number of transactions completed, so uninterrupted access to data is integral to its business relationship as a service provider to its partners and customers. In 2002, floods in Karlín revealed a weakness in its existing Internet connection: Availability. CCS decided it must have two Internet providers to handle unexpected events and interruptions caused by natural disasters. The company created two pipelines for service: One at 34 Mb/s and the other at 7 Mb/s. These pipelines would provide availability for essential services such as customer service, e-mail communication with customers and partners, and communications with partners from other business chains to exchange transaction files and payment card blacklists.

SEOClerks, a marketplace for SEO and other web-related services, was facing a significant challenge with fraud. Their approach to fraud prevention was largely reactionary, with fraudulent accounts being banned after a chargeback was received. However, these users would often return and create new accounts to continue their fraudulent activities. Despite having an IP-based fraud-detection tool, SEOClerks was still experiencing various types of fraudulent activity, including money laundering, referral fraud, account abuse, and friendly fraud. The main issue was money laundering using stolen credit card or PayPal information. They were unable to identify clear relationships between multiple bad users, and their existing fraud tool didn't provide any intelligence for spotting fraud rings or repeat abusers.

As Carousell began to scale, they started to see fraudsters posting fake and spammy product listings for products that either arrived to the buyer not as described or never got delivered to the buyer at all. Carousell didn’t have a way of proactively preventing these listings and relied on user flags to spot and remove them. This meant that these listings not only posed a threat to good users until they were eventually removed but threatened to sully the reputation of the platform, as well. Repeat fraudsters were also finding ways to get back onto the platform even after Carousell deleted their accounts, and continued to post abusive, fake listings with their new accounts. Carousell limits the number of accounts a user may have to a maximum of two, but fraudsters were creating multiple accounts and Carousell was finding it difficult to keep track of them all. Carousell was using a rules-based fraud solution, but it was time-consuming to have to jump in and change rules every time fraudsters changed their tactics.

Zirtue, a mobile relationship-based lending application, was facing a growing issue of friendly fraud where users were disputing their loan payments falsely claiming they had not authorized the transactions. This was compounded by the fact that Zirtue had access to a very limited amount of user data, preventing them from proactively recognizing suspicious behaviors and stopping the fraud before it happened. Additionally, the vetting process for taking out a loan was lengthy and required tedious and time-consuming email exchanges between Zirtue and the borrower, to ensure the borrower could confirm their identity. This manual work frequently delayed loans, creating headaches for the Data Analytics team and borrowers alike, and it was looking as though another team member would need to be hired to help handle the workload.

Chicago Music Exchange (CME), a leading music equipment retailer, faced a significant challenge with fraudulent orders after switching their website platform provider. They encountered fraudsters placing small to medium-value orders to test the system before moving to higher-value items. Once a fraudulent order got through, it was easy for these cybercriminals to create fraudulent new accounts and multiply their gains. CME had particular difficulty with orders sent to freight forwarding companies, which required an added level of verification to authenticate the transactions and addresses. This meant that CME had to manually contact the customer or research the shipping address, which was time-consuming and not always effective. This was particularly true for more complicated overseas orders, and every time, CME was left to handle the loss.

Paula’s Choice, a multinational skincare company, was facing persistent fraud patterns on their platform, resulting in an influx of chargebacks. Fraudsters were ordering products in bulk at a discount and then shipping them to other countries to resell through eBay or Amazon for profit. To combat this, Paula’s Choice initially kept a spreadsheet and manually blocked suspicious orders, but soon discovered how challenging it was to manage and stay accurate. They turned to Sift as a solution. However, when they adopted a new payment processor, they switched from Sift Payment Protection to the payment processor’s revenue protection product, which was offered for free. This switch resulted in an immediate inundation with fraud, receiving hundreds of chargebacks—6x their normal volume.

Coffee Meets Bagel (CMB) is a leading dating application that aims to provide a safe environment for its users to find real relationships. However, the integrity of its community was being compromised by fraudulent users creating fake profiles and engaging in romance scams. These fraudulent activities not only impacted the brand's integrity but also the trust users had in the platform. Fraudsters were sophisticated and quickly adapted to the rules-based systems and methodologies that CMB used to stop them. As the user base of CMB expanded, the company needed a solution that could adapt instantly, stay ahead of fraudsters, and scale as the business grew.

During the early stages of the company, PayMongo encountered fraud attacks that resulted in financial losses, including an alarming 4% dispute rate. It was crucial for the startup company to prevent this fraudulent activity in order to enable their merchants’ success and scale their own business. In their search for the perfect fraud solution, PayMongo was introduced to Sift at a Y Combinator event and agreed to an assessment. Following the review, PayMongo concluded Sift Payment Protection was an ideal fit for what they were looking for in a fraud tool.

Pierce AB, an eCommerce operator in the motorcycle and snowmobile industry, was facing the challenge of presenting a local face to customers across 16 countries. The company was looking for a way to consolidate and streamline its logistics while providing exceptional customer service. The company was also looking to scale its business interests internationally. Before implementing MetaPack, Pierce AB was served by only four carriers, which was insufficient for its wide geographical range and growing customer base.

ASOS, an online fashion and beauty retailer, was facing complications in international delivery, particularly in documentation and data. The requirements for these vary by country of destination, adding to the complexity. The company’s international delivery processes required manual intervention to regularly contact carriers and update prices within the ASOS fulfilment systems, as well as paperwork for each order to meet necessary customs regulations. ASOS wanted to manage its increased volume in deliveries and destinations, minimise manual tasks and paperwork, and achieve the best price for carriers around the globe.

Childrensalon, one of the UK’s largest online retailers of children’s fashion, was running a manual despatch operation that used a number of different carriers. In order to process orders through the website, picking lists and invoices had to be printed manually. Although systems were automated as far as possible, there was pressure on staff to select the best carrier and to ensure that all necessary paperwork had been completed correctly. Once the goods were in transit, obtaining tracking information was a time-consuming task that placed an additional burden on customer service personnel. This inefficient use of time and resource combined with the lack of sufficient tracking information led to a procedure that would enable the company to maintain exceptional levels of service to customers.

CB Fashion, a logistics service provider for a wide range of fashion brands, was looking to streamline its operations and expand its product offering. The company was facing challenges in meeting the demands of its fast-paced customer base. The IT team was burdened with tasks that could be outsourced to a specialist firm. The company wanted more flexibility in setting up new carriers and new carrier delivery options to meet the demands of its customers. They were looking for a multicarrier plug-in tool that could help them achieve this flexibility without having to develop it themselves.

3P Logistics, a leader in providing eCommerce and order fulfilment services to online retailers, was facing the challenge of meeting the increasing expectations of customers in the rapidly evolving online world. Customers were demanding extended same-day shipping windows and on-demand order information. As the company's business continued to grow, there was a need to pursue efficiency gains through automation and enhance its service offering to differentiate from other operators. The company was also looking to refine its strategy through data-driven insights.

Festive Lights Ltd, a company specializing in lights for the house and garden as well as Christmas lights and decorations, was facing challenges in processing orders in a timely and efficient manner due to its manual despatch operation. Orders were manually printed off in batches, with address details typed into each carrier management system. Every address label was then printed individually. These methods created the opportunity for human error and took a toll on time and resources. When the time came to divide parcels according to courier, the staff had to rely on assumption. This process was both confusing and time consuming, and would incur additional costs if the parcels were sent with the wrong carrier.

The Business Process Outsourcer (BPO) was facing a challenge with its newly hired call agents. The new agents were taking up to 60 days to feel confident in handling every type of customer call. This was affecting the efficiency and productivity of the call center. The BPO was looking for a solution that could reduce the time it took for new agents to become proficient in their roles. One of the key metrics of proficiency for the BPO was handle time, which was not improving with the current training methods. The new agents often had to put customers on hold to ask for help from their colleagues, which was increasing handle time and reducing customer satisfaction.

The Heico Companies, a holding company with a diverse industrial portfolio, was facing challenges in identifying and managing Serious Injuries and Fatalities (SIFs) across its various firms. Traditional approaches to reducing SIF potential, such as Heinrich’s Safety Triangle, were proving inadequate as they often misidentified the fundamental issues causing SIF events. The company needed a more nuanced method to reduce SIF rates, especially given its global presence and mixed portfolio. The challenge was to identify tasks with high potential for SIFs rather than focusing on more common severe or non-injury events. Additionally, the company needed to understand industry or region-specific workplace situations with high SIF potential.

Campbell Soup Company was operating with an Environmental Management System (EMS) that consisted of 7 stand-alone systems, each addressing a different aspect of their environmental management program. This fragmented approach was causing inconsistent documentation, limited access to data, time-consuming data gathering and dissemination, and an inability to assess the overall compliance of individual locations and the company as a whole.