State Government Agency Blocks Rogue Assets

After discovering rogue assets in the dashboard of their previous tool, and not receiving vendor support to resolve the critical security issue of unknown and untrusted devices, the IT Business Operations Manager at the government agency began looking for a new device management solution that would remove the previous vendor’s product from the environment as well as provide the necessary support. The department also needed a management and security solution that handled Microsoft and third-party patching, remote control, and server management from a single console.

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Full Visibility and Automated Patching

The government agency used the Absolute Security solution to scan and verify that the old vendor’s product was removed from the environment and ensure that no additional rogue assets were discovered. After resolving this critical security issue, the agency turned to the Absolute Security solution to manage the increasing number of devices in use, pushing out Microsoft and third-party patch updates to all devices and troubleshooting IT issues remotely through the console. Due to the Absolute Security solution’s ease of use, especially to manage and secure the agency’s endpoints, the organization expanded its usage, providing the department’s Security Engineer with a streamlined way to manage and patch servers.

Securing the Environment from Rogue Devices

The agency is responsible for the receipt and disbursement of state funds and lottery funds, as well as the management of the state’s cash resources. This means they handle sensitive financial and account information across the state, and safeguarding this data is integral to the operations of the agency, as well as to the trust and integrity of the office. When rogue assets were discovered in the dashboard, it was critical to identify them and block them from gaining access to the network. Many red flags were present: the unknown devices didn’t fit with the standard naming convention used by the organization, and none of the team members recognized the devices. After reaching out to their vendor at the time and receiving no support in resolving the urgent issue, the agency’s IT Business Operations Manager started to look for another product that could help them resolve the issue, which is how they found the Absolute Security solution. The Absolute Security team understood the gravity of the situation and worked quickly to get the agency on a trial to showcase product functionality. This led the agency to ultimately bring the Absolute Security solution on to monitor and reduce the organization’s attack surface.

One-Click Patch Management

Staff members often use multiple devices to get their work done. With a sole IT Business Operations Manager to oversee all those devices, they did not have an efficient way to stay up to date on patching. In addition, they needed to remotely connect to devices that weren’t physically in the office to troubleshoot issues and push updates. With the Absolute Security solution, the agency has regularly scheduled scans that check the environment for missing patches and other vulnerabilities. In addition, they can now see which devices haven’t been online in a while and which are behind on scans, giving them the ability to send them a reminder to turn the device on to be scanned and patched.

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