IFIC Bank maximizes security, gains better visibility into traffic and enhances manageability

IFIC Bank is a banking company incorporated in 1976 as a joint venture between the government of Bangladesh and sponsors in the private sector, with the objective of working as a finance company within the country and setting up joint venture banks/financial institutions abroad. In 1983, IFIC Bank was converted into a full-fledged commercial bank. In a period of just three years, the bank has expanded from 150 branches to 1,400 branches around the country, with approximately 1.5 million customers, making IFIC Bank the largest bank in Bangladesh.

Md. Showkat Ali, Manager, Network Administration, IFIC Bank wanted to consolidate the large number of security products that the bank was using. He says, “We were primarily looking at a solution that could provide IFIC Bank security at scale and ease of management.”

IFIC Bank was using several security products and wanted to transition to a solution that could provide them with security at scale as they expanded. As Showkat says, “We were looking for a solution that could strengthen security across all 1,400 branches across Bangladesh, and also ensure ease of manageability of all customer data for their 1.5 million customers. IFIC Bank had also started a new Card Management System (CMS) in 2023, and needed a partner that could manage this crucial new application.”

Elaborating on IFIC Bank’s CMS, Showkat says, “This was another crucial function that needed to be secured, because 1.5 million customers are connected with debit cards, credit cards or dual currency cards continually, 24/7.” With two data centers, IFIC Bank wanted to secure their demilitarized zone (DMZ) or perimeter. They were using a separate firewall for managing their threat landscape and faced issues with visibility across their network, as well as real-time threat detection and prevention. According to Showkat, their legacy solution could not protect them against web-based attacks and did not secure remote users. Being in the banking and financial services sector, IFIC Bank also needed to adhere to all regulatory and compliance requirements.

Five years ago, IFIC Bank opted to transition to Palo Alto Networks NGFWs in their DMZ and this helped them during the pandemic. Showkat shares, “Even though the world was under lockdown, banking operations were functioning normally. Since we had already deployed Palo Alto Networks NGFWs, employees could seamlessly shift to work from home (WFH), using GlobalProtect®. In addition, the separate firewall that the bank was using for threat visibility had lags and drawbacks, hampering visibility. Our migration to NGFWs gave us the critical advantage of detailed visibility into network application traffic and security events, and also offered live threat detection and prevention.”

IFIC Bank was managing four pairs of firewalls in separate consoles and wanted an integrated firewall. “We selected Palo Alto Networks because they are a reputed company and the leader in NGFWs. We were able to consolidate multiple vendors into the Palo Alto Networks platform,” says Showkat. With Advanced URL Filtering, outbound connections are vetted, allowing IFIC Bank to block all phishing and malicious sites and provide access to only business-critical sites. Showkat emphasizes the importance of compliance, especially being in the banking sector. IFIC Bank is an ISO 27001 and a Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) certified bank. NGFW enables IFIC Bank to address compliance requirements through generating Quarterly Firewall Rule Review reports and other custom reports with a single click. With Palo Alto Networks NGFWs, IFIC Bank has gained monitoring and reporting advantages and did not need to hire more people to manage their reporting. This has resulted in significant cost savings for the bank.

Since the configuration of Palo Alto Networks firewalls is easy, with monitoring and reporting systems in place, during branch expansion IFIC Bank did not have to invest in hiring more talent. Showkat explains, “Before the Palo Alto Networks NGFWs, we had a firewall engineer who was handling about 5 change requests a day, on an average. Now, we have increased the number of firewalls that we have to 8, and deal with an average of 200 change requests daily. However, we have not had to add any additional firewall engineers.” IFIC Bank could improve their security posture during branch expansion, without adding staff or buying additional equipment. They could also manage their security and monitoring tasks without hiring more people, and this resulted in a 40% resource cost savings.

Time savings of three hours on average per day on manual tasks

IFIC Bank saved an average of three hours per day due to the reduction of manual tasks, and this in turn, helped reduce operational and resourcing costs.

Financial data security and manageability

IFIC Bank transitioned from 150 branches to 1,400 branches within a period of three years. Even though this was a major expansion, all financial data in the DMZ was protected and the CMS was secure with Palo Alto Networks NGFWs. Showkat and his team could manage branch expansion and growing customer numbers with ease.

Reporting and monitoring for compliance

With the integrated tool in the Palo Alto Networks solution, IFIC Bank can generate all compliance requirements and other custom reports with a single click. Automation of manual and repetitive tasks has freed up time for Showkat and his team to focus on more important projects.

Showkat wraps up by talking of IFIC Bank’s partner, Gazi Communications. “We find Gazi Communications, our support and configuration partner, extremely competent and knowledgeable with regards to Palo Alto Networks solutions. They are able to troubleshoot and help us resolve any issues we may encounter,” he says.

Looking ahead, IFIC Bank is looking at adopting Panorama® from Palo Alto Networks for better firewall management. With automated security management, IFIC Bank can reduce misconfigurations and gain the advantage of centralized security management.

Gazi Communications is one of the biggest system integrators (SI) in Bangladesh. The company aims to be the trusted advisor of customers for all of their data connectivity and networking needs, through the provision of Data Center solutions. In addition, Gazi Communications partners with various technology vendors to ensure they offer comprehensive solutions for their customers.