Imperva > Case Studies > WMPH Vacations Enhances Site Security and Performance with IoT Solution

WMPH Vacations Enhances Site Security and Performance with IoT Solution

Technology Category

Analytics & Modeling - Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Applicable Industries

Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Maintenance
Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Chatbots
Inventory Management

Services

System Integration

About The Customer

WMPH Vacations is a travel company that specializes in cruise and resort vacations. The company operates a network of 30 websites that help people prepare for and purchase vacations. Its mission is to make its customers happy by providing accurate and relevant information for their cruise vacations and reservation systems that enable its agents and direct customers to find the best deals. WMPH partners with all major cruise lines and has a first-to-market mobile app, Cruise Finder by iCruise.com, which is a comprehensive cruise vacation-planning tool in the travel industry.

The Challenge

WMPH Vacations, a travel company specializing in cruise and resort vacations, was facing significant challenges with its network of 30 websites. The company's websites were under constant attack from hackers, competitors, unauthorized aggregators, and other malicious actors. The security threats included near-constant SQL injection attempts, aggressive price scraping, unauthorized vulnerability scanning, and spam. The form spam was particularly problematic as it polluted the company's backend systems, requiring managers to manually sift through forms to remove spam. Despite implementing CAPTCHAs and creating filters, these techniques proved ineffective and required constant maintenance. Additionally, web scraping was negatively impacting site performance, slowing response times, and affecting customer service and transactions with partners. The company was using AWS ELB to manually block IPs, but this was a never-ending task due to bot operators changing and masking IPs.

The Solution

WMPH Vacations deployed the Imperva Secure CDN for all its websites to address these challenges. The solution immediately helped the company identify a business in the Netherlands that was scraping its sites for prices millions of times a day. With Imperva Bot Management, WMPH was able to block bad bots without affecting real users or good bots like Google. The solution also eliminated the need for CAPTCHAs on forms, which significantly increased leads. Furthermore, the company was able to protect its partners from excessive API calls caused by scrapers. Imperva also provided visibility into click fraud, enabling WMPH to identify discrepancies and seek credits and refunds from vendors. The company also used Imperva to protect its Compass intranet, where agents can check sales, listen to phone messages, and view cruise line information.

Operational Impact

The deployment of Imperva Secure CDN brought significant operational benefits to WMPH Vacations. The solution effectively eliminated SQL injection attempts, form spam, and aggressive price scraping, thereby enhancing the security of the company's websites. It also improved site performance by 40%, leading to better customer service and transactions with partners. The solution also helped WMPH protect its smaller partners from excessive API calls that could potentially bring down their systems. Additionally, the company was able to save time and development costs by eliminating the need for constant maintenance of CAPTCHAs and filters. The visibility into click fraud provided by Imperva enabled WMPH to identify discrepancies and seek credits and refunds from vendors, leading to cost savings. The company also benefited from excellent support from Imperva, providing peace of mind and allowing the team to focus on their core business.

Quantitative Benefit