Managed Detection and Response (MDR) for Endpoints

Azul Hospitality Group, a property management company for premier hotels with unique destinations and product attributes, knows that the foundation for successful hospitality is exceptional service.

Since 2007, the company has worked hard to do just that while maximizing the performance of its hotel and resort assets.
In today’s cyber environment, that level of service also includes safeguarding guests’ personal and financial data. As such,
Azul places a high importance on defending its network against a potential cyber threat.

The Initial Engagement

Azul has maintained an IT department since 2015, when Houman Mobasher, Corporate Director of IT, came on board. Since then, the team has added three members in the roles of IT manager, technical support, and technical installer. Together, they design the network infrastructures, assist with installations and support, and handle IT security.

In 2020, Azul’s IT team received a notification from one of the hotel brand security operations centers that a cyber incident had occurred. The team took immediate action, bringing in cybersecurity specialists to assist with the response. Pondurance was
hand-chosen to gather and preserve all digital evidence for the forensic investigation, and the cyber incident was efficiently
resolved.

“What happened wasn’t a serious matter,” said Mobasher. “But thankfully Pondurance was there to tell us that and help us to better understand what happened.”

The Ongoing Partnership

Moving forward, Azul’s IT team wanted to take preventative actions to secure its network and safeguard its data. The team chose to protect the Azul network with SentinelOne, an endpoint protection software that defends every endpoint against attack throughout the threat life cycle. Because of the adept work done on the forensic investigation, the team chose Pondurance as its MDR (Managed Detection and Response) partner for SentinelOne.

“SentinelOne uses artificial intelligence and learns as it works,” explained Mobasher. “It constantly reports back to the company that supports it to let them know what activity it has seen. Then, it’s the human’s job to investigate and dig more into it, and that’s what Pondurance provides for us.”

Pondurance believes that humans are the most important component of any cybersecurity service. Tools and technology alone can’t stop cyber attackers, and need constant tuning and validation to work properly. So, Pondurance partners with customers like Azul to handle the full management, administration, and hunting with best in breed endpoint security tools like SentinelOne, as well as CrowdStrike and Microsoft Defender. Pondurance’s MDR for endpoints service provides 24/7/365 endpoint protection with complete visibility and rapid response to defend against the modern cyber landscape.

The End Result

The relationship between Azul and Pondurance continues to strengthen. Azul’s IT team works with multiple members of Pondurance’s team, from front line technicians to senior management, on an ongoing basis and is pleased with Pondurance’s professionalism, knowledge, and advice.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give Pondurance a 10,” said Mobasher. “They have been a very good partner to use and have done an excellent job so far.”

Azul Quick Profile

Founded in 2007
Headquartered in San Diego with properties in eight states

About Pondurance

Pondurance delivers world-class MDR services to industries facing today’s most pressing and dynamic cybersecurity challenges including ransomware, complex compliance requirements, and digital transformation accelerated by a distributed workforce. By combining our advanced platform with our experienced team of analysts, we continuously hunt, investigate, validate, and contain threats so your own team can focus on what matters most.

Pondurance experts include seasoned security operations analysts, digital forensics and incident response professionals, and compliance and security strategists who provide always-on services to clients seeking broader visibility, faster response and containment, and more unified risk management for their organizations.

For more information, call 1-888-385-1702 or email us at info@pondurance.com.

“We have experience with other cybersecurity firms that do similar work. They are usually very aggressive in their sales, but that’s not how Pondurance is. Pondurance wants to work with us, not just sell us a product.”

Case Study

Azul Hospitality Group Safeguards Guest Data with MDR for Endpoints