Virus storms from partner networks

Company X had several partner connections through which various operations and business partners had a direct channel into the company's network. The company had no direct monitoring, so one day it contacted us in a state of panic when almost all of its internal clients had been contaminated with the Code Red virus, which then spread further at a remarkable pace to its customers' (and other) contacts. It had just closed its Internet connection when it contacted us and the company's operations were in effect standing still. Given that the virus had also knocked out the production servers, all production came to a halt and morale at the company was low. The company couldn't understand where the virus came from since it had antivirus protection on gateways and clients.

When a security consultant from Secode arrived on site, it quickly became clear that one of the company's larger partners had literally injected the virus into the network. Since the company's production stood still for a full day, they decided to divide the various partner connections in a more organized manner, as well as to supplement the security system with IDS sensors for the Internet, DMZ, partner, and internal networks.

Today the company is able to keep a close eye on all its connections and it no longer needs to worry about unpleasant surprises with consequences that affect the bottom line. They also has one less partner, as this business relationship was terminated on the same day Secode discovered the source of the virus.