How Lineas, Europe’s Largest Private Rail Freight Operator Found the Right Cybersecurity Tool

Vital infrastructure has become an area of concern for cybersecurity experts in recent years. If attackers go after services that provide water, electricity, and internet access to the public, it could prove devastating to local populations. Transportation is one of those vital services, with consumers relying on them not only to commute but that also moves products to consumers across regions and borders.

For Lineas, Europe’s top private rail freight operator, protecting against cyberattacks was necessary to keep products moving across the continent. Yet there were challenges in choosing a cybersecurity solution until they found Exabeam. By working with Exabeam, the company was able to put a solution in place that gives their leadership team the peace of mind they need.

Cybersecurity needs for smooth operations

Like the trucking industry, freight trains rely heavily on logistics to ensure cargo keeps moving. Even a half-hour outage can cause serious disruption in the supply chain. Lineas helps businesses across Europe shift their freight transportation from road to rail, reducing traffic and keeping their carbon footprint to a minimum.

When Lineas began exploring a security solution they identified a big challenge. The company has a small in-house cybersecurity team, which meant that whatever solution they chose needed to be somewhat self-supporting. The team was not only small but the cybersecurity program itself was relatively new, so the tool would need to be able to do most of the work.

Monitoring user behavior

Early on in the search, Lineas realized that user entity and behavior analytics (UEBA) was the right fit for its environment. With such a new cybersecurity program and a small team, Lineas simply didn’t have the resources necessary to scour through pages of logs and babysit the server around the clock.

UEBA learns the typical behaviors of users and devices on a network to better identify when something unusual happens. Instead of having to constantly watch the activity on a network, a cybersecurity team can look at the alerts and determine whether an alert is of concern. If, for instance, a user is suddenly downloading a high volume of data, UEBA creates a timeline of the alerts so the team can investigate the anomaly.

Choosing Exabeam

After conducting significant research, Lineas chose Exabeam as its cybersecurity solution. A primary reason was the confidence that Exabeam would support their small team and keep their network running and free of compromise. The value of the capabilities they were getting was also a consideration. Lastly, Lineas liked the visibility the tool would give them into what was happening in their own environment. Exabeam’s analytics-driven approach helps empower their team to gather the data necessary to protect their servers and devices.

As a result, the cybersecurity team is finding that the alerts they’re receiving aren’t alerts they would have received otherwise. Not only does this better help them identify issues and take action, but they’re also learning more about how users act within their own environment. This is helpful overall in helping them know what to do with the information once there is a possible problem.

An improved team

One unexpected benefit of the new solution is how it’s improved Lineas’s hiring processes. The company has an easier time hiring analysts who don’t have to spend their days scouring logs for possible issues and focus instead on threat detection and response. With Exabeam, team members can put their efforts into reading the data and deciding what action needs to be taken.

The team at Lineas especially likes the variety of ways they can access the information. The IT team can add various logs to get a wide range of insights, which helps them gather specific information they need from one day to the next. They’ve found that because they’ve been able to customize the tool to meet their unique environment, the number of false positives is almost nonexistent. That helps reduce alert fatigue and drain on the analysts.

With the right security tool in place, Lineas can be confident that their systems are protected against malicious activity. At the same time, Exabeam has allowed the cybersecurity team to learn more about how users and devices are interacting within their environment. Read how for Lineas, the key benefits of Exabeam – powerful insights, visibility across the environment and time savings – have proven invaluable.