Cloud-Based Security and Filtering for a Mobile, Multi-Site Business
Initial Assessment
The client — a fast-scaling marketing and research consultancy — approached Astec following a growing concern over repeated phishing attempts and malware links targeting their team. While there had been no successful breach, they felt their current setup hadn’t kept up with the pace of their business growth.
- Three UK Offices + Roaming Workforce: Their team worked across three sites, with many users frequently travelling or working remotely on laptops and mobile devices.
- Firewall-Limited Filtering: Their existing firewalls could only handle basic outbound filtering by category and were difficult to manage — particularly around allow/deny lists and nuanced content categorisation.
- No Remote Coverage: As protection was only available on the corporate network, users working remotely were completely unprotected outside the office.
- Email Concerns: Many phishing attempts came via email, yet their existing setup offered no link inspection or visibility at that level.
Astec performed a full audit of their environment, including traffic paths, firewall capability, and typical user behaviours. We also reviewed their network logs to understand the common phishing vectors and where users were being caught out.
Solution Planning
Based on our findings, we recommended a scalable, cloud-native security solution with three core advantages:
- Global Threat Intelligence: Continuously updated intelligence sourced from global DNS traffic to detect threats early — far beyond what traditional firewalls could provide.
- Device-Level Protection: Support for installing lightweight agents on corporate laptops, Androids and iPhones, ensuring the same level of filtering whether staff were in the office, on the move, or working from home.
- Simple, Effective Control: Centralised cloud management with far more granular content filtering, real-time threat blocking, and improved alerting — reducing overheads for the business.
We also recommended that guest Wi-Fi networks be covered, using network-based enforcement at each office location, ensuring that any device using their infrastructure was protected — without needing agent deployment.
Deployment
Astec rolled the solution out in a phased, structured manner:
- Office Networks: We implemented protection at the network level across all three offices, ensuring central control of all DNS requests leaving the network.
- Roaming Devices: Agents were deployed to all company-managed laptops and mobile devices using our RMM tooling, allowing for off-site filtering with no reliance on VPN or firewall connection.
- Mobile Support: iOS and Android devices were configured with the appropriate mobile profile to apply filtering and roaming protection seamlessly.
- Guest Wi-Fi Segmentation: We secured guest access at each office location to ensure malicious content couldn’t be accessed from unmanaged endpoints.
- Policy Customisation: Business-specific policies were created to match team roles, including access rules, blocked categories, and tailored allowlists/denylists — improving control while avoiding unnecessary disruption.
Outcome
The client saw a marked improvement in visibility, security, and confidence across their business.
- Real-Time Visibility: Central reporting allowed them to see what was being blocked, where threats were coming from, and which users were being targeted.
- Consistent Roaming Protection: The team is now protected no matter where they work — including home, co-working spaces, or while travelling.
- Less Admin Burden: Moving filtering from firewall to cloud meant far less manual configuration and simpler policy maintenance.
- Strengthened Security Posture: With phishing, malware, and inappropriate content now blocked at DNS level — including via email links — the business significantly reduced its risk exposure.
- Client Confidence: IT Security no longer felt outpaced by business growth, and the leadership team felt more in control of the threat landscape.
“Astec helped us understand the risks and showed us exactly how to fix them. The visibility and consistency we now have across all our devices and offices is a game changer.”
