Safeguarding a global network of more than 66,000 against modern cyberthreats

SUMMARY

The Royal Air Forces Association is a charity that supports the Royal Air Force community, comprising 66,000+ personnel, veterans, and family members. A forward-thinking Palo Alto Networks Network Security platform proactively secures this highly sensitive environment. It provides efficient and automated, 360-degree threat, visibility, monitoring and protection. The platform has been live since 2014 – 10 years – without incident. The Group Head of Information Security trusts Palo Alto Networks so much, he has purchased a Palo Alto Networks ML-Powered Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) to protect data in his own home.

RESULTS

66,000+

individuals are protected

10 years

without a single cyber incident since firewalls went live in 2014
CHALLENGE

For over 90 years, the RAF Association has championed one simple belief – that no member of its community should ever be left without the help they need. But demands for its services are increasing and becoming ever more complex – not least because of the digital requirements of RAF personnel and veterans. To remain on the leading edge of service provision, this innovative charity decided to enhance the protection it provides to members, volunteers, supporters, and beneficiaries. The RAF Association needed a unified, highly flexible network security platform that would offer complete visibility and control over every network threat. The solution would be required to:

  • Safeguard data across the organisation’s estate, including branches, veterans’ homes, and school nurseries.
  • Take extra care against international threats.
  • Deliver resilient cybersecurity within a constrained budget.
  • Provide simple, complete, and easily managed network security.

“As a relatively small charity, we need to make every penny spent on cybersecurity count. That security needs to be adaptive, highly resilient, and easy to use.”

– Darren Bisbey

Group Head of Information Security,
The RAF Association

SOLUTION

The NGFWs provide complete, near-real-time north-south and east-west visibility and protection against every type of threat. Deep learning and inline machine learning-based protection safeguards from malicious content in real-time, and the unified network security architecture makes it fast and easy to manage the security environment. The NGFWs are so effective, Darren even uses one in his home.

A connected suite of Cloud-Delivered Security Services (CDSS) adds an additional layer of protection that is natively integrated, offering consistent best-in-class protection across the entire estate. For example Advanced URL Filtering provides real-time protection against known and unknown web-based threats – an extra layer of control to thwart advanced and evasive phishing, one of the largest attack vectors today.