Gentera is built on the vision of eradicating financial exclusion and serves over 3.2 million clients across its subsidiaries in Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru. To help empower those with fewer financial resources, Gentera provides counseling and services around credit, insurance, payment methods, remittances, and financial education.
Carlos Bravo serves as the Chief Information Security Officer at Gentera, where he is responsible for securing the organization’s broad, geographically distributed customer base and salesforce as well as modernizing IT to meet the demands of mobile-first customers and partners who cannot compromise on securing their smart devices and trusted users. The organization needed better visibility across its network and cloud assets as well as detection and prevention into advanced threats.
The Challenge: Enabling a Secure Digital Transformation Across Cloud and Mobile
Gentera’s digital transformation is robust and ongoing, requiring visibility and threat response to cover the banking, insurance, and financial services provided to its customers. Bravo recognized the importance of selecting a security partner that could protect its expanding cloud infrastructure and also prevent incursions through its mobile sales workforce.
“We needed advanced security defenses that could seamlessly detect anomalies and respond to them with speed given the fast-paced changes inherent within cloud systems,” Bravo explains. “We also needed to protect more than 18,000 mobile devices from malware and other modern cyber threats.”
The Solution: Context and Visibility into Cloud Threats, Best-in-Class Mobile Threat Prevention
After evaluating the available security platforms, Gentera chose Check Point CloudGuard CNAPP (Cloud-Native Application Protection Platform) because of its continuous cloud security and real-time detection and threat prevention capabilities. CloudGuard CNAPP protects cloud-native applications by integrating many security functionalities into a single platform, unifying SAST, CSPM, DSPM, CIEM, CWPP, WAF, and cloud detection and response. Vulnerabilities can be detected in real-time and prevented or automatically remediated. Gentera uses Google CloudGuard because of its heavy workload within the Google Cloud environment.
“Check Point combines cloud security posture management, cloud workload protection platform, and cloud infrastructure entitlement management all in one solution, and these capabilities are exactly what we needed to protect our cloud infrastructure going forward,” continues Bravo.
Gentera also selected Check Point Harmony Mobile to protect its extensive sales force. Harmony Mobile secures the organization’s mobile devices across all attack vectors: apps, files, network and OS. It enables enterprise-grade security for iOS and Android devices and is designed to reduce overhead and increase user adoption, seamlessly protecting devices without impacting user experience or privacy.
The Results: A Cyber Security Trifecta – Threat Visibility, Response, and Advanced Threat Prevention
“Check Point has enhanced visibility into the threats targeting us and has improved the ability to respond to incidents quickly,” explains Bravo. Check Point’s combined visibility, threat prevention, and response speed have been huge advantages for Bravo and his security team.
“CloudGuard CNAPP enables continuous scanning of our infrastructure, helping us identify and mitigate risks before they can be exploited. And CloudGuard automates the process of managing cloud security, reducing the need for manual checks,” he adds. “Check Point has not only helped us to strengthen our cyber security posture, but has also improved operational efficiency as we digitally transform the services we provide our customers.”
Securing the organization’s large mobile footprint has also added tremendous value to Gentera’s security stack. The proactive protection provided by Harmony Mobile has proven instrumental in safeguarding sensitive data and ensuring the uninterrupted delivery of services.
“Harmony Mobile today protects thousands of our mobile workers who promote our products and services. There has been a surge of QR-based attacks in Mexico and Harmony Mobile scans and looks for malicious QR codes, protecting employees from this growing threat.”
Conclusion
Gentera has significantly improved its cyber security posture by implementing Check Point’s advanced security solutions, enabling a secure and efficient digital transformation across its connected businesses. By adopting CloudGuard CNAPP, Gentera has gained comprehensive visibility and real-time threat prevention for its cloud infrastructure, ensuring continuous protection and swift response to potential risks. Additionally, Check Point Harmony Mobile has fortified the security of over 18,000 mobile devices used by Gentera’s salesforce, protecting them from modern cyber threats, including emerging QR-based attacks.
This integrated approach to cloud and mobile security has not only enhanced Gentera’s ability to safeguard sensitive data, it has also streamlined operations, allowing the company to maintain its mission of empowering underserved populations while mitigating risks in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
For more information, check out the Gentera case study.