How Plymouth Rock Manages Security Risk

TL;DR

Plymouth Rock had vulnerability scanners and antivirus tools in place, and they were doing their job - for vulnerabilities. The problem was everything else: misconfigurations, credential risks, and exposures that never show up in a scan. XM Cyber filled that gap across the insurer's on-premise and cloud environments, showing the team which assets attackers could reach, how many steps it would take, and where to focus first.

The Challenge

Plymouth Rock has a committed team working hard to ensure the company’s critical assets remain secure. To accomplish this, the team utilizes tools from vendors to identify and mitigate threats. XM Cyber has played a significant role as Plymouth Rock enhances and continually invests in security protection.

Before deploying XM Cyber, Plymouth Rock used vulnerability scanners, antivirus software, and other tools to safeguard critical assets. However, as the company grew it faced increasing security threats and they needed more sophistication and support with identifying threats and prioritizing risk. To address these challenges, the team at Plymouth Rock engaged with XM Cyber. XM Cyber did not replace these standard tools but complemented the company’s existing resources to identify exposures from misconfigurations, vulnerabilities, and human error.

The Solution

Plymouth Rock deployed XM Cyber’s Exposure Management platform to strengthen its overall security posture. Company leaders say that XM Cyber plays a critical role in identifying critical assets and zones and showing precisely how many steps it would take an attacker to compromise those assets.

When XM Cyber’s Continuous Exposure Management platform indicates that an asset can be compromised in five steps or fewer, the Plymouth Rock security team jumps into action and begins working to close the vulnerability. Company executives credit XM Cyber with identifying the most urgent, high-risk exposures and providing actionable, prioritized remedial recommendations for security teams.

"They've been involved when we've had some incident response activities. They've helped us with product picks. They've worked with us to ensure that the infrastructure is robust."

Anne Petruff, Vice President, Plymouth Rock Assurance

Benefits & Outcomes

Plymouth Rock credits XM Cyber with exposing the potential for APT and lateral movement risks and reducing the time that would ordinarily be spent working to deter such threats. Company executives also recommend XM Cyber’s ability to show how attacks would unfold under real world conditions — something they say galvanizes defenders and gives their work added meaning.

An organization the size of Plymouth Rock generates a long list of tasks to assist in mitigating security risks. This means that smart, streamlined prioritization is a key objective. Plymouth Rock leaders say that the platform makes this process much faster and easier. Instead of devoting significant work hours to scope these risks, the team relies on XM Cyber to help with prioritization based on risk analysis.

Plymouth Rock continues to incorporate XM Cyber into their overall security posture on both on-premise and cloud environments. Company executives say that XM Cyber’s ability to go much deeper into threat analysis is a key differentiator. Unlike other tools, XM Cyber can identify hidden vulnerabilities that can exploited by highly sophisticated attackers.

"The most positive thing we've had from XM is really having a trusted partner that helps us in the security space. They are more than just a software vendor. They've really been across-board a security partner."

Anne Petruff, Vice President, Plymouth Rock Assurance

Key Takeaways

• Plymouth Rock's scanners and antivirus tools were handling vulnerabilities, but XM Cyber could show the team the misconfigurations, credential risks, and attack paths those tools never surfaced. 
• The platform maps every path to critical assets and counts the steps an attacker would need to get there. Anything reachable in five steps or fewer gets immediate attention. 
• MITRE ATT&CK integration means that XM Cyber mimics how advanced persistent threats actually operate, so the team sees lateral movement risks before they become incidents. 
• Risk prioritization used to eat significant work hours. XM Cyber's context-based approach replaced that manual scoping with targeted, risk-ranked recommendations. 
• The deployment covers both on-premise and cloud environments, giving Plymouth Rock deeper threat analysis than its previous toolset could deliver.