Defending public services while reducing cost and complexity
The Municipality of Cuenca was relying on a decentralized cybersecurity strategy. Most of the 24 local government entities—such as utilities, transport, and planning—chose whichever network security platform best suited their needs. Due to costs and complexities, some had barely any security measures at all. The result was a complex mix of different platforms that decreased visibility, increased operational cost, and heightened the organization’s vulnerability to cyberattack.
The Municipality of Cuenca needed to:
- Increase visibility and protection: Multiple unintegrated security products made it difficult to collect a comprehensive view of network traffic and stop potential threats.
- Reduce operational complexity: Each point product was separately managed by the respective entity, and with their differing policies, this resulted in increased time and training requirements - and thus increased overhead.
- Improve network performance: Network latency had increased in line with the number of devices, impacting time-sensitive Municipality services.
- Lower costs: Growing technology and security demands were becoming increasingly difficult to manage due to the widespread distribution of devices. The objective was to reduce overall costs and total cost of ownership (TCO) by consolidating and leveraging economies of scale.
Security consolidation across 16 entities
The Municipality of Cuenca standardized on Palo Alto Networks PA-Series hardware firewalls across 16 of its 24 entities to consolidate security, gain better visibility, and use its scarce cybersecurity resources more efficiently. Features such as machine learning, protection against the latest Al-driven threats, and widespread automation have transformed the Municipality’s security, agility, and efficiency. This transformation has enabled the Municipality to decrease complexity and expand its focus on Zero Trust visibility and control.
The deployment was architected and implemented in just six weeks by GMS, a leading South American security services partner. The GMS team collaborated closely with the Municipality from the start of the project, providing expert guidance and professional services. “GMS was the bridge to great security,” says Alberto Fabián Carrión Lituma, Infrastructure Technician, Municipality of Cuenca. “Their security skills and professionalism were outstanding.”
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Simplifies network security
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The single platform enables the Municipality to proactively monitor, analyze, and prevent sophisticated threats in real time with less complexity.
“We are the first Municipality in Ecuador to adopt this modern, consolidated strategy. It’s a blueprint for other Ecuadorian government entities to follow,” says Esteban Paúl Garzón Campos, Director General of Information and Communication Technologies. -
Accelerates threat prevention
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With natively integrated protection across security functions, the Municipality of Cuenca has consistent prevention and complete coverage at every threat vector, which helps quickly repel the newest threats to all entities. The Municipality estimates that mean time to detect and repair (MTTD/R) are both 60% faster than before. -
Strengthens protection everywhere
All the Municipality’s affiliated entities - both large and small - now benefit from dramatically improved protection, thanks to high-fidelity threat intelligence from natively integrated Cloud-Delivered Security Services.
For example, the Municipality estimates 30% more threats are now blocked in the entities that had relatively mature security processes. For the entities that relied on basic, rudimentary security, the reduction is approximately 90%.
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Facilitates security management
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The entire suite of security functions and policies is managed from a single interface, reducing management, operations, and maintenance complexity.
By simplifying cybersecurity, the Municipality has been able to increase security productivity by 40% and redeploy the resources saved to strategic tasks. -
Reduces operating costs
The modern, connected security does not require more hardware installations, more management overhead, or additional training for security teams.
By adopting this streamlined approach to security, the Municipality has reduced network security costs by 65%.
The single platform enables the Municipality to proactively monitor, analyze, and prevent sophisticated threats in real time with less complexity.
With natively integrated protection across security functions, the Municipality of Cuenca has consistent prevention and complete coverage at every threat vector, which helps quickly repel the newest threats to all entities. The Municipality estimates that mean time to detect and repair (MTTD/R) are both 60% faster than before.
The entire suite of security functions and policies is managed from a single interface, reducing management, operations, and maintenance complexity.Share this story
