Client
Yager Development GmbH is a renowned developer of computer and video games. The company was founded in 1999 by a group of enthusiastic game developers. As early as 2003, the studio's debut game, entitled "Yager", was released and won international awards for its successful technical implementation. Yager has since released other successful titles, such as "Spec Ops: The Line". The third-person shooter won awards in five categories at the German Developer Awards. In 2020, the Chinese online group Tencent acquired a minority stake in Yager Development GmbH. The company now employs around 140 people and is based in Berlin-Kreuzberg.
Challenge
As a developer of computer and video games, a functioning digital infrastructure is essential for Yager Development GmbH. If criminals were to succeed in compromising the systems, there would not only be the threat of industrial espionage and data theft. In the worst case, an encryption and blackmail Trojan could even bring the entire production process to a standstill - an economic catastrophe. Today, companies of all sizes and in all industries are coveted targets for cyberattacks.
Roman Golka, IT Director at Yager Development GmbH, is aware of the sharp increase in threats in the area of IT security: "We have reached a new threat level in terms of cybercrime - both qualitatively and quantitatively. IT security is therefore becoming increasingly complex and multi-layered. Spectacular IT security incidents are regularly reported in the news. Even corporations with large manpower and large budgets are not spared. Until now, Yager's internal IT security team has taken care of defending against cyberattacks. "But we can't cover all the issues in depth ourselves," Golka says. Initially, Yager's IT managers considered implementing a security information and event management (SIEM) tool for early attack detection.
However, the SIEM solution proved not to be a hundred percent fit: "With the existing IT team, a SIEM solution is not manageable for us. The personnel and financial costs for implementation and ongoing operation would have been too high. In addition, it would also have taken too long to set up the system so that we could achieve a level of security we were comfortable with."
Solution
To further enhance its IT security level and supplement its current IT security measures, consisting of antivirus solutions and firewall, among others, Yager turned to Allgeier secion. The company had already worked successfully with the Hamburg-based IT security experts on joint pentests in the past. The goal of the cooperation this time was to further professionalize IT security and to "position itself more broadly" with proactive early attack detection. In joint discussions, Allgeier secion's Active Cyber Defense (ACD) service quickly became the topic of discussion.
ACD proactively and continuously scans the corporate network for anomalies. In the event that systems are compromised, Allgeier secion's ACD team provides immediate notification when action is required to avert damage from attackers. As an early warning system, the 24/7 service helps to secure the corporate network actively, proactively and permanently so that costly reactive measures can be avoided. As a "managed detection and response service" (MDR), ACD ties up significantly fewer financial and human resources than a SIEM. It relieves IT security teams and already covers the most important requirements at an attractive monthly service price.
Result
Those responsible at Yager quickly recognized the advantages of Allgeier secion's "Managed Detection and Response Service" (MDR) and decided to implement early attack detection using ACD. "The implementation, including all preliminary work on our side - for example, the installation of the sensors provided - was completed within two days. The big advantage of the solution for us is that we have virtually nothing to do with it in our day-to-day business and effective network protection is guaranteed from day one," says Golka. By using ACD, Yager Development has achieved the highest level of network security, while at the same time being able to reduce the workload on its internal IT team.
"ACD's proactive approach is coherent and convinced us very quickly. The implementation was straightforward and fast. Communication with the IT security consultants from Allgeier secion was also clear and professional at all times. We don't have to allocate any resources to ACD during ongoing operations. The system runs and is monitored by Allgeier secion. We only keep an eye on the fact that the hardware supplied is available at all times in a fail-safe manner. ACD helps us in the worst case, a successful cyberattack, to react early enough to minimize potential damage. I still believe that it was a good decision to place this part of IT security in expert hands. ACD is a worthwhile investment for us in our own security, which I can only highly recommend to other companies."
Roman Golka IT-Director