About Harrod Sport
Harrod Sport is a family run business established in 1954 that has grown from repairing fishing nets and selling them as garden netting to becoming the largest UK supplier of all sporting equipment such as nets, goal posts and team shelters which are all manufactured on site in their factory in Lowestoft, Suffolk.
With an enviable position as the official supplier of equipment to prestigious global events including the London and Rio Olympics, Rugby World Cup and hockey and netball championships, Harrod Sport is an award-winning organisation that’s recognised as an innovator in the sport industry.
Business Challenge
Embracing, driving and delivering continual improvement in products and service, innovation extends into every facet of Harrod Sport – including their approach to security.
As the security world becomes more challenging, it’s also becoming more difficult for internal IT teams to keep up with the volume and variety of security threats. Harrods Sport recognised the benefit of getting a partner on board to help with their security journey, helping them future proof their business from both existing and future threats.
One of the main drivers behind Harrod Sport bringing an IT partner on board was to be able to demonstrate to their large number of high profile corporate clients that the business is at the vanguard of cyber security.
The Solution
A security posture assessment revealed the priorities for Harrod Sport to be able to cover threats of today but also put them in a better position to defend against those of tomorrow.
One of the items on the agenda was implementing a perimeter solution that automatically updates security policies when new threats are identified, using Palo Alto Networks Firewalls with their WildFire service. The WildFire service was a key part of the solution because it means that as soon as a new threat is identified either on any Palo Alto Networks customer worldwide or from threat intelligence, the Firewall is updated to block that threat within 5 minutes of it being identified. Harrod Sport is immediately protected from that threat without any human interaction, automatically reducing the workload of the IT Team.
CVD recommended a migration to Mimecast to counter the ongoing highest attack method through email, including impersonation attacks and malicious links. The IT team already had awareness training in place which is critical in a layered security approach, however user error is always possible, so Charterhouse Group has also implemented solutions to protect the user and organisation from those mistakes using Mimecast technology.
As part of the project, we wanted to increase the visibility of vulnerabilities to the IT Team, allowing them to prioritise the highest risk vulnerabilities as quickly as possible. The team now benefit from regular insight of new vulnerabilities on their network, allowing them to resolve them quickly and before they are exploited.
““Harrod Sport brought Charterhouse Group on board to take our cyber security journey to the next level. We now have a trusted partner in place with the specialist expertise needed to continue to defend our network against the threats of today as well as those of tomorrow. Our internal IT team can carry on with the day job, safe in the knowledge that security is in Charterhouse Group’s capable hands.”Managing Director, Harrod Sport
Business Outcomes
The posture assessment highlighted Harrod Sport’s existing capabilities, enabling CVD to not only implement the most relevant solutions to them for their current situation, but also react to
threats as they emerge.
Engaging Charterhouse Group as a security partner means Harrod Sport has accessed the capabilities of security experts who see the emerging threats across a wide range of sectors and organisations and
receive threat information from multiple sources.
The automated processes put in place by Charterhouse Group defend against tomorrow’s threats, meaning the internal IT teams are able to concentrate on the day job without a lot of noise around security
solutions. This helps reduce their workload while ensuring their security is fit for tomorrow.
Read more about our Security Solutions »