VolitionRx Limited, a multi-national cancer diagnostic company, has implemented a solution from Cylance to safeguard patient information. The company deployed CylancePROTECT to prevent malicious activity targeting endpoint devices before it can endanger sensitive patient information.
VolitionRx Limited is a multi-national life sciences company focused on developing new ways to detect cancer. Current cancer diagnosis often involves expensive, unpleasant and/or invasive testing. Volition’s goal is to diagnose a range of cancers quickly, accurately and inexpensively, reducing the strain on over-burdened healthcare systems. One of their innovations is an early diagnostic test able to analyse a small sample of blood.
With critical information stored across their systems and with the healthcare industry being one of the most targeted for cyberattacks, security for Volition RX is paramount.
Daniel Halter, Group IT Manager at VolitionRX, said: “At VolitionRx, it had become quite clear that we needed a new endpoint security solution that provided us with worldwide coverage and visibility of all the devices in real time.
“We required an endpoint security solution that would enhance and improve our ability to detect threats such as zero-day attacks and ransomware without the need for clients to keep on updating definition files to remain safe.
“Like all companies our data is important, and we need to make sure we have in place security solutions that provide us with the ability to identify and stop the sophisticated cyberattacks that are prevalent today.”
The company’s ideal product needed to be reliable, efficient and easily manageable and it also had to be readily deployable to its operations in four separate countries.
According to Mr Halter, traditional antivirus vendors were offering the same old solution ‘only slightly jazzier’.
He said: “When we were looking at options some of the vendors were offering the tried, tested and more traditional approach to endpoint security with background scans running with the latest definition files. Some of the solutions we tested were using multiple products to address the issue of ransomware and endpoint security which felt like bolts on to the traditional model.”
When looking for a vendor, key considerations for VolitionRx included ensuring the solution offered functionality, licensing and support.
Seeking an ideal match, Mr Halter reached out to Khipu Networks for their security recommendation. Khipu Networks suggested CylancePROTECT, Cylance’s artificial intelligence endpoint security product.
Having run multiple tests, KHIPU was able to showcase CylancePROTECT’s threat detection capabilities and ease of use and seamless integration with other security software. The solution’s low consumption on endpoint devices was an additional benefit, especially for older hardware devices in operation.
Matt Ashman, CCO and co-founder at KHIPU Networks commented on the reasoning behind the choice of CylancePROTECT, saying: “The key reason KHIPU chose Cylance was because, not only does the platform detect and prevent vulnerabilities, it also predicts and eliminates them. This is extremely important in any environment – having that level of control, visibility and automation, can protect your environments against ever-changing cyberattacks.”
CylancePROTECT is an integrated threat prevention solution that combines the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to block malware infections with additional security controls that safeguard against script-based, fileless, memory and external device-based attacks.
VolitionRx, along with Cylance’s UK distributor, Ignition Technology, put CylancePROTECT to the test. They quickly noticed its ability to identify threats that the existing solution overlooked. Running these tests on top of other security software proved remarkably easy.
“We were able to test Cylance against other well-known anti-virus solutions and found Cylance was always protecting and identifying threats which we hadn’t previously seen – it really did just work. Having CylancePROTECT and its advanced, predictive algorithm in place ensures we are safe and secured,” said Mr Halter.
“Unlike experiencing degraded performance when you sit one AV solution with another, Cylance deployed without issues.
“The low CPU consumption of the client devices was noticeable in comparison to the other solutions we tested, especially on older hardware. The admin dashboard was easy to navigate and understand and the information provided when risks were identified was very insightful.”
The results
CylancePROTECT proved to be the agile, cooperative and centralised solution VolitionRx was seeking.
Its low CPU consumption on endpoint devices was especially useful for older hardware.
The cancer diagnostics company no longer needs to constantly update AV definition files to ensure robust endpoint protection.
With this success, Volition is confident its staff can focus on pioneering new technologies instead of worrying about ransomware.
Mr Halter said: “By adopting Cylance’s predictive approach to addressing cybersecurity threats we have confidence in knowing that with the ever-changing nature of today’s cyberattacks our endpoints are safe and secure. This changes the focus from being reactive to proactive and enables us to be more efficient and effective with our available resources.”
Whether fighting cancer or malware, Volition and Cylance both share a common, proactive approach to keeping people safe. This partnership is a natural fit for two companies dedicated to being thought leaders and innovators in their respective fields.
Advice for CISOs
Dr Anton Grashion, Managing Director of Security Practice at Cylance, has this advice for CISOs looking for similar solutions.
“So much in today’s cybersecurity landscape is seen as ‘unprecedented’ it seems strange that we rely on security solutions that require precisely the opposite to be true.
“I would advise CISOs to assess their current solutions against the risk mitigation it delivers. Over time the ‘likelihood’ element of the risk equation has been creeping up thereby increasing the multiplier of cost.
“This is because legacy solutions have demonstrably not delivered preventative protection thereby chasing complexity and cost into the networks. Prevent as much as you can and your downstream requirements for detection and response suddenly look very different.”
Asked what was unique about Cylance’s product which appealed to customers, he said: “That’s easy. Efficacy, simplicity and performance. The Cylance solution delivers predicative prevention, pre-execution, using advanced AI and ML techniques, is simple to deploy and manage and has a very light impact on system resources. Any one of these factors would appeal to customers, the ability to deliver all of them makes it a compelling proposition.”
