Lake Michigan Credit Union - Forcepoint

Case Study

Lake Michigan Credit Union

"The `rollout' was awesome. We had a five day window of time to set up the systems and we were able to do it in three days plus a half day of training."

-- Chase Busscher, IT Supervisor, LMCU

INDUSTRY Financial Services

COUNTRY United States

PRODUCT TYPE Forcepoint Web Security, Forcepoint Email Security & Forcepoint DLP

SIZE 1,000 users

SECURITY ISSUE Unifying Security Solutions

OVERVIEW Founded in 1933, Lake Michigan Credit Union (LMCU) is one of the largest financial institutions headquartered in Michigan and the second largest credit union in the state. LMCU employs over 900 professionals and has over 300,000 members, 36 branch locations, and nearly 100 ATMs in West Michigan, East Michigan and Kalamazoo. With $3.7 billion in assets, LMCU has an outstanding 99.53% membership renewal rate.

The company provides a wide range of financial services, from checking accounts, to mortgages, commercial loans, insurance and investment services. LMCU's "Anywhere" capability gives anyone in the country the ability to become a member. Customers can access their account from any location around the nation by taking advantage of the "go-anywhere" mobile app.

LMCU has received many accolades--Bauer Financial Group awarded a 5-Star rating for financial safety and soundness and the company also earned a spot among the National Best and Brightest Companies to Work For.

CHALLENGE LMCU's loyal members trust the company with their valuable personal information including Social Security numbers, account numbers and passwords. Keeping this information private and secure is a daily challenge given that financial institutions are the top target of threat actors around the world. Every day, financial institutions put their reputation on the line and are only one incident of data loss or theft away from causing irreparable harm to customers and its viability as a business. Performance and productivity continue to be at risk as well as the battle to defend critical data against external attacks and insider threats.

Aaron Christenson is responsible for managing LMCU's security solutions while Chase Busscher is the IT Supervisor. He manages the infrastructure team which includes server administrators, the help desk and network crew. They are painfully aware that financial institutions are one of the biggest targets for phishing and other primary and secondary malware attacks.

"Like most financial institutions, we are a target for attacks every day."

-- Christenson



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Lake Michigan Credit Union

According to Chase and Aaron, LMCU's previous security solution did not offer unified visibility amongst the products and was lacking in actionable guidance for the IT department. As a result, time management was becoming more inconvenient for active users and administrators. They were spending too many man hours "minding" the system. Time spent repairing and monitoring the network was excessive and critical.

It was crucial to Chase and Aaron for the company to acquire a security solution that maximized IT security effectiveness. LMCU needed unified security across email and web that provided the visibility and control needed to manage risks and demonstrate IT security effectiveness against Advanced Threats. By doing this, they would ensure that LMCU would be following proper Data Theft Prevention measures.

SOLUTION LMCU recognized that prior security needed to be enhanced. After evaluating several data security solutions on the market, Aaron and Chase decided to install Forcepoint security.

"The original thought process for moving to Forcepoint was its functionality as an all-inclusive product which we really liked. The other products we evaluated had disjointed web and email pieces. Forcepoint's solution was one modular unit -- web, email, data --all in one."

-- Christenson

A unified security solution simplified the user experience to an effective and efficiently operating system. The installation process was quick and painless. In addition, Forcepoint was able to offer the hands-on support LMCU needed to have the solution up and running as soon as possible.



"The `rollout' was awesome. We had a five-day window of time to set up the systems and we were able to do it in three days plus a half-day of training."

-- Busscher

The IT team at LMCU also understands that the first step towards a successful, long-term security solution is not just about the technology. Creating user awareness and providing guidance on recognizing potential malicious websites/emails is also important-- the human element is a major factor in achieving and maintaining successful data security. Forcepoint invested time with LMCU in order to provide users the proper introduction and guidance to the new data security solution.

"Forcepoint was fabulous. They spent time with our team and gave us the `ins and outs' of the entire product. They were able to show us how we could take our web and email filtering from what we had and make it even better."

-- Busscher

RESULTS Since deploying the Forcepoint security solutions, there have been phishing attempts and a few external attempts at data theft that LMCU has been able to prevent.

Aaron and Chase are now able to manage their time more efficiently because of what Forcepoint has provided them.

"Compared to the products we have had before, we are getting fewer calls and emails about inappropriate user activity, spam, phishing attempts and websites that should or should not be blocked. We are getting fewer calls that require us to maintain the system. It is proactive and it is much better than our previous product."

-- Christenson

TRITON Architecture's unified security also enables LMCU's IT team to change employee habits to reduce risky behavior. It stops users from unknowingly downloading harmful malware through the web and email channels. More importantly, LMCU users are now informed enough to make appropriate web and email decisions on their own. Additionally, Aaron and Chase commend Forcepoint for the overall IT help center, providing reliable support in a time effective manner.

"Forcepoint support has been great for us. We open a case on the web portal and we get a response in two hours or less. We usually have a resolution that day."

-- Christenson

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Forcepoint was able to provide LMCU with web, email, and data security solutions that drastically improved the security level and the IT team's overall effectiveness and efficiency. LMCU needed a unified, proactive and efficient system and Forcepoint security solutions satisfied all of these needs.

"We are really happy with the product. I think it works exactly as we need it to work."

-- Busscher

Lake Michigan Credit Union has relied on Forcepoint security solutions since 2006.

Lake Michigan Credit Union

CONTACT contact

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[CASESTUDY_LAKE_MICHIGAN_CREDIT_EN] 300031.021317



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