Saubermacher: Internationally active waste management and recycling company with the vision “Zero Trust”
Solutions: Guardian, IKARUS 24/7 incident.response
An IKARUS success story.
Saubermacher Dienstleistungs AG is an internationally active waste management and recycling company with headquarters in Feldkirchen near Graz. The environmental pioneer was founded in 1979 to contribute to an environment worth living in every day. Today, the family-owned company is a competent partner for about 1,600 municipalities and 40,000 companies and employs about 3,400 people in Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary. The environmental pioneer offers customised disposal and recycling solutions for all hazardous and non-hazardous waste. With its vision of “Zero Waste”, the company aims to process all waste materials so that higher proportions of the source material can be recycled. In addition, Saubermacher is a global leader in (lithium-ion) battery recycling. With its digital innovations such as the waste box, the Daheim service app, the recyclables scanner and many more, the company is continuously expanding its market position in digital (waste disposal) solutions. Last year, Saubermacher was named the world’s most sustainable waste management company for the fourth time in a row (GRESB).
Extensive challenges for IT
The main tasks of IT at Saubermacher are to provide 2nd and 3rd level support to employees during day-to-day business and to operate the data centre and the network. First-level support was outsourced for capacity reasons. “From the central IT department at the headquarters in Feldkirchen near Graz, the IT department looks after around 750 users, as well as more than 1000 mobile phones and around 500 tablets at almost 49 locations,” says Alexander Wallner, Head of Group IT Services, outlining the dimensions of the work area. An additional challenge results from two to three companies being added each year through acquisitions or takeovers, which are integrated into the existing network.
No comprehensive security management without IT/OT security
In the corporate environment, IT/OT security for the protection of corporate infrastructure, data and employee security has become indispensable. The impetus to take a closer look at a holistic solution for sustainable cyber security as part of a POC (proof of concept) came from an existing partner: “A1 recommended IKARUS to us as THE Austrian system integrator for professional IT/OT security technologies,” describes Alexander Wallner takes the first step towards making a decision.
The partnerships with Nozomi Networks, the technology leader in IT/OT security, and Trellix (formerly FireEye) in collaboration with Mandiant, the market leader in threat intelligence and incident response, combined with the overall know-how and local support of IKARUS, results in a well-rounded total package. During the POC with in-depth testing, it became apparent that the demanding challenges of mapping and visualising the entire network in real-time could be met in the best possible way. After these positive findings of the in-house IT department, the acquisition was finally approved by the Saubermacher board of directors.
“During the introductory phase, the IKARUS team of technicians impressed us time and again, from the kick-off to the perfect project management to the know-how,” Alexander Wallner sums up the introductory phase with satisfaction.
This included, in particular, support for customised tuning of the industrial network architecture, network segmentation and the establishment of secure remote monitoring solutions. Today, full transparency over all OT assets in the in-house network and the ability to detect cyber threats and anomalies in an automated way increases operational resilience in production and actively promotes the digital transformation at Saubermacher.
In future, with 24×7 emergency plan
Security incidents in the IT/OT environment do not adhere to working hours and can affect any company. “At Saubermacher, there are sometimes “long” working hours on weekdays due to requirements – even on Saturdays, and some systems run 24/7 at all,” Alexander Wallner describes the situation. The decisive factor in cyber security incidents is the speed of response to minimise the technical and financial impact of targeted activities.
The emergency service IKARUS 24/7 incident.response takes over the tasks of identification, containment and eradication of detected threats for Saubermacher. A team of experts consisting of system engineers and security analysts is on call to support the Saubermacher IT team with knowledge, experience, software and data in case of emergency. If necessary, IKARUS can also call on the global IR experts of Platinum Partner Mandiant on an ongoing basis.
Summing up, Christian Fritz, COO of IKARUS Security Software, is pleased “that we are the only system integrator in Austria for the technologies of Trellix, Mandiant and our Platinum Partner NOZOMI Networks and that we are able to provide our customers like Saubermacher with a highly professional global service in local execution.”
