Global telecommunications operators require the highest levels of security as they deal with large volumes of personal information, trade secrets and other sensitive data. In an extremely competitive market, locking down data is critical, and high levels of data security help drive market advantage.
Business Situation
As a leading mobile operator, Turkcell is committed to the development and implementation of best data security practices. Ensuring the security of both customer data and sensitive corporate information is critical to the company’s ongoing success, and is a driving force for the company’s focus on best practices.
Challenge
As a large mobile operator, thousands of employees are handling sensitive information housed in Microsoft Office® files on a daily basis. While security is a priority, it can be a challenge to ensure each individual employee is handling information appropriately, and accidental data leakage can occur.
Turkcell has been using a server-based Data Loss Prevention (DLP) solution for several years which enables them to stop the flow of sensitive information outside the organization. However, these technologies only offer a partial solution, and can result in false positives, or documents being delayed or not sent at all.
Solution
The Turkcell security team began to look for a solution to enable them to extend the value of their existing Microsoft infrastructure and DLP solution. The company carefully assessed a number of approaches and solutions for classifying documents and selected Fortra's Data Classification Suite for Microsoft Office.
With DCS for Microsoft Office, end users are able to quickly and easily classify documents within the Microsoft application they are using. Additionally, they can apply visual markings such as headers, footers and watermarks to ensure proper information handling.
The metadata generated as part of the classification process is then used by the existing DLP solution, creating a complete approach to information security.
“Fortra’s ability to generate the metadata was critical. With that, our DLP solution has the information needed to ensure that sensitive data does not leave the organization, and protects us against accidental leakage of our most valuable asset - our information."
Benefits
Since deploying DCS for Microsoft Office, Turkcell has realized a number of benefits across the organization and has been able to drive a substantial return on their initial investment.
The solution has been deployed enterprise-wide to more than 3000 employees who are actively classifying documents from their desktop. “Not only are our employees actively participating in ensuring the security of information, they are much more aware of how to handle information. The solution’s ease of use has ensured user acceptance and adoption which ultimately helps us strengthen our security posture.”
The initial investment in DCS for Microsoft Office has quickly been recouped by Turkcell as they have been able to extend the security of the organization, and avoid issues of delayed or unsent documents resulting from the server-based DLP solution.
“The investment in DCS for Microsoft Office was extremely affordable, especially as we were able to seamlessly integrate it into our existing infrastructure. Furthermore, the solution’s total cost of ownership is minimal when you compare the potential costs resulting from data leakage to our organization,” outlined Papila.
Turkcell is actively involved in the development of standards and best practices for data security in Eastern Europe, and the Data Classification solution is able to grow with them over time as new standards may emerge.
“Fortra Data Classification for Microsoft Office can easily be configured to meet emerging standards or regulations, and we have the flexibility to extend our classification to Outlook moving ahead,” said Papila. Our experience with [Fortra] has been outstanding, and we are looking forward to continuing to work with them for years to come.”