Utilizing the system built in the early days when the ban on commercial use of the Internet was lifted while improving it according to the changes of the times

Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. was founded in 1888 as a "manufacturing method" responsible for the manufacture and repair of machinery and equipment used at the Besshi Copper Mine in Niihama, Ehime Prefecture. Mechatronics, Industrial Machinery, Logistics & Construction, and Energy & Lifeline based on the mission of becoming a machine manufacturer that continues to provide first-class products and services to enrich the world with reliable technology that supports manufacturing. We operate our business in two segments. Products manufactured in each segment are used in industrial activities such as automobile factories, semiconductor factories, port facilities, and steelworks, as well as in daily life such as commercial facilities, hospitals, and elevators/escalators.

Currently, Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Ltd. has formulated the "Mid-term Management Plan 2023" starting in fiscal 2021, aiming to sustainably expand corporate value by solving social issues through products and services. Social issues to be solved include improving labor productivity, improving energy efficiency, improving convenience through the application of advanced technology, responding to climate change, responding to more sophisticated infrastructure, challenging the circular economy, and realizing well-being. 7 task areas are set. The company's raison d'etre is to improve productivity through the products it provides, increase customer value, and solve customer issues such as reducing the defect rate. In order to carry out these business activities safely and securely on a global basis, we are working on a next-generation infrastructure concept equipped with strong security functions for the ICT infrastructure that supports them.

Mr. Umeda, Chief Engineer of the ICT Infrastructure Strategy Group, ICT Headquarters, said, "Sumitomo Heavy Industries has manufacturing bases around the world and employs approximately 24,000 people. One of the features is that the ICT headquarters has supported ICT infrastructure mainly in Asia and China, but in the future, we will establish a system that can support ICT infrastructure worldwide, including Europe and the United States. At this time, with the idea that safety and compliance take precedence over everything else, we will strictly address legal compliance and cyber risks.Therefore, it was necessary to renovate the aging security infrastructure."

Sumitomo Heavy Industries' Internet connection environment is a system that was built about 30 years ago when commercial use of the Internet began, and has been improved in line with the changing times. In an on-premises environment, in a configuration that combines commercial content filtering products, open source Squid, commercial antivirus products, etc., the response is poor due to the overhead of the cooperation part, and the proxy server becomes a communication bottleneck. Problems such as not being able to see the website occurred.

In addition, due to the spread of COVID-19, telecommuting has become mainstream, and it became necessary to connect to the company network from the home Internet environment via VPN, but there was also the problem of poor response. . Mr. Nagano, an engineer in the ICT Infrastructure Strategy Group of the ICT Headquarters, said, "Because the company is made up of multiple divisions, there are a wide variety of ways to use it. We wanted to simplify operations. Since we have bases all over the world, it is difficult to deploy on-premises all over the world, so we thought we needed a cloud-compatible proxy server."

Decided to adopt the isolation that can separate and harmless the website as innovative security

For the first time in 30 years, Sumitomo Heavy Industries decided to revamp its security infrastructure from the architecture, and began considering it in February 2020. We conducted PoC (proof of concept) of multiple proxy server products, and decided to adopt Menlo Security after comprehensively judging usability, website reproducibility, response, etc. Currently, it is deployed to about 15,000 users in Japan and the Asian region, and plans to expand to Europe and the United States in the future.

Mr. Umeda said, "When we investigated recent trends in proxy servers, we found that the use of cloud-based proxy servers is the mainstream, and we believe that this is the future direction. Among them, Menlo Security's all categories I felt that the concept of isolation, which can separate and harmless websites, was innovative.I thought it would be possible to link with the next-generation ICT infrastructure that is currently being constructed and used globally. I did,” he says.

Recent cyberattacks have been very difficult to spot, as they use websites that look and feel the same as the company's official website. The reality is that conventional deny-list filtering is not 100% accurate in determining which websites are safe and which are unsafe. By adopting Menlo Security, it is possible to browse all categories of websites in an isolated and harmless state, so you can use the Internet environment safely and securely for your work.

According to Mr. Umeda, “We were worried that the introduction of a proxy server would increase the number of communication processes, which would result in poor response. In fact, it does not become a bottleneck, and the communication from the proxy is optimized, so I feel that the response is rather good.Menlo Security The icon is displayed, but it gives me a sense of security," he said with a smile.

On the other hand, regarding the operational effects, Mr. Nagano said, "With the on-premises system, it was necessary to increase the number of servers and make repeated improvements in order to handle the huge amount of traffic from telecommuting, which increased the operational load. Menlo Security's cloud-based SecureWeb Gateway has reduced the operational load and made it easier mentally.Because infrastructure is taken for granted, there are few compliments from users who actually use it. However, there were no complaints from users about the poor response, and it was well received that it became easier to use.”

When introducing a new mechanism, not limited to proxy servers, it is necessary to learn a different method than before, so there is considerable resistance in the field. Therefore, when introducing Menlo Security, in order to get used to the operation at an early stage, we asked a key person in charge at the site at the time of PoC implementation. These ingenuity paid off, and we were able to suppress resistance at the site and succeed in rapid deployment.

Mr. Nagano said, "I wanted to avoid slow response when working from home, so I needed to devise ways to optimize the route to the cloud. It was very helpful to have Menlo Security engineers kindly support me when I was there.Since it was the first introduction, it was necessary to build from scratch from the operation process, but with Menlo Security's support I think we are operating well at the moment," he said.

In the future, we will realize a mechanism that can globally promote improvement activities on the integrated ICT infrastructure.

Going forward, Sumitomo Heavy Industries is promoting digital transformation (DX) in order to maximize corporate value over the medium to long term. We plan to further strengthen the ICT infrastructure that supports these activities. We aim to realize a mechanism that can promote reform activities globally on the integrated ICT infrastructure that we have built.

Mr. Umeda said, "One of the efforts to respond to the sophistication of infrastructure was the introduction of Menlo Security's cloud-based Secure Web Gateway (SWG). In building an integrated ICT infrastructure, Menlo Security has added functions. In the future, we will continue to develop solutions that realize SecureAccess Service Edge (SASE) on the WAN side and LAN segmentation and communication on the LAN side. We will introduce a control mechanism.In addition to realizing safer application usage by strengthening authentication, we are also considering terminal management using EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response)."

Furthermore, since there are still 10 Mbps networks remaining in the physical infrastructure, we will first support 10 Gbps, and in the future, we will realize infrastructure that can support 100 Gbps backbones. We plan to review and renovate not only the ICT infrastructure, but also terminals and physical infrastructure.

Finally, he concludes, ``Many vendors now offer cloud-based security, and MenloSecurity's Isolation is one of them, but they're not all the same. We want more people to know about Menlo Security, which provides complete peace of mind by isolating all websites.Furthermore, Macnica has integrated its knowledge and know-how regarding Menlo Security. We have strong back-end support from maintenance service providers.We look forward to providing information on integrating the entire system, such as linking Menlo Security with other companies' products.'' (Umeda) Mr)