HP announced yesterday that Swiss Federal Railways has selected HP TippingPoint technology to secure the national railway’s network. The Swiss Federal Railway network is a critical component of Switzerland’s national infrastructure. For an organization like this, protecting the network can be a matter of physical safety because it controls both the signaling system and energy framework. With intrusion prevention from the HP TippingPoint 7200NX and the TippingPoint SMS XL Appliance, the organization railway system is taking on modern, evolving threats from throughout the spectrum.

An important component of Switzerland’s national infrastructure, Swiss Federal Railways controls both the signaling system and the energy framework for the railway. With security attacks on the rise, effective network protection is critical to the organization. Swiss Federal Railways identified the need for a simple, effective, reliable and high-performance intrusion prevention system that would enhance existing security layers as part of a routine upgrade of its central routing backbone.
“Even with strong security measures already in place, the highly sensitive nature of the railway’s network, along with the escalation of cyberthreats, presented a need for greater visibility and proactive defense,” said Erwin Jud, senior security engineer, Swiss Federal Railways. “The HP TippingPoint IPS combines advanced threat intelligence and thorough visibility, enabling us to better protect our infrastructure with minimal administrative effort.”

The railway is not unlike a great deal of environments across the world today in that they are dealing with a broadening network perimeter and the challenges that this evolution has introduced. The game has changed significantly, constantly emerging new threats and types of attack have made a robust security platform a critical tool in security today’s entperprise. The HP TippingPoint NX platform delivers next generation security platform capabilities to the network as a leader in the field of Next Generation IPS (NGIPS). The real-time NGIPS proactively defends cyberthreats that target the network, applications and critical data.

“During its routine upgrade process, Swiss Federal Railways identified more than 60 security requirements it needed to fulfill. As part of the process, the government organization prioritized the most critical components necessary to keep operations running smoothly and securely, which included:

• A redundant solution to support deployment in two locations
• Fail-safe functionality
• Powerful out-of-the-box default policies
• Inspection capacity of 20 G, that could scale up to 40 G

The HP TippingPoint NX platform delivers a real-time NGIPS to proactively defend against cyberthreats that target the network, applications and critical data. After a rigorous evaluation process, Swiss Federal Railways selected HP TippingPoint for the platform’s ease of use, comprehensive visibility across all security assets and advanced threat intelligence. The platform enhances the organization’s ability to manage risk, while also maximizing existing security investments.”

Faced with increasingly sophisticated security needs, advanced security systems like HP’s continue to proliferate throughout the enterprise. HP’s TippingPoint systems are a popular and leading platform that is winning clients through the world. The products are enterprise friendly – easy to use, easy to integrate, and loaded with features. In environments such as the Swiss Federal Railway that compose the most critical infrastructure components of a whole country, adoption of next generation security will be a significant operational decision for years to come.