JobRad continues to expand network security, adding next-level Infoblox DNS security solution to DDI security solution
“It was clear to us that our previous protection was not sufficient for the way we worked. We needed to use the cloud and upgrade in terms of cyber security.”
- Thomas Goch, JobRad GmbH, Freiburg
The Customer: JobRad Rolls Out Alternative to the Company Car: The Company Bicycle
JobRad’s slogan is “We get people out on bikes.” Founded in 2008 in the cycling city of Freiburg, the company aimed from the very beginning to establish the company bicycle as an equal alternative to the company car in Germany. Cycling has many advantages—it’s healthy, it gets you moving, it’s fun and it supports climate protection. The idea finally proved a successful concept after the company launched an awareness campaign with the tax authorities in 2012 to ensure that both company cars and company bicycles were taken into account for tax purposes. The campaign created the perfect conditions for bikes to be used widely for work. In 2020, leased service bikes were awarded further tax incentives, making them even more attractive. In that same year, the subsidiary JobRad Österreich GmbH was launched. More than 50,000 employers now offer company bike leasing with JobRad.
Around 650 employees currently work for the company bicycle provider. Since the beginning of the pandemic, they have increasingly worked from home or from mobile offices. From 80 to 90 percent of the workforce take advantage of working flexibly in terms of location. Plus, virtually all of JobRad’s business processes are digital. The wealth of data and information that is processed digitally every day, combined with work locations that are sometimes far away from the company’s headquarters in Freiburg, make strong network protection essential for JobRad.
Customer: JobRad GmbH
Sector: Company bike leasing
Project: IT security for home and mobile offices, Protection from external security threats, Hybrid, readily available network architecture
Results: Transparency and control over DNS traffic, Employee and mobile device protection, Seamless integration into the existing IT ecosystem, Reduction of JobRad IT team’s workload
Results: NIOS DDI, BloxOne Threat Defense
The Challenge: Updating Network Security for a Remote Workforce
A year and a half ago, JobRad decided to implement Infoblox’s NIOS DDI solution as server-based on-premises software on the Infoblox Trinzic 1415 appliance, as recommended by its IT service provider, Bechtle. As a result, the company was able to optimize and standardize its management of DNS, DHCP and IPAM network services (collectively known as DDI). “For security within our corporate environment, we encrypted data with a VPN tunnel. However, like many other digital companies, we went through a massive upheaval during the pandemic,” says JobRad’s Thomas Goch. “Most of our employees work from home offices, on the train, in cafés or other places, and more and more services operate outside our protected environment. If we were to come under a cyber attack, a VPN tunnel simply couldn’t help us anymore.”
Preventing Cyber Attacks
There is a great concern for security breaches and potential loss of sensitive data at JobRad, whether from ransomware, phishing or any other form of cyber attack. For Goch and his colleague Michael Heinzmann, who are both responsible for JobRad’s IT and network security, it was clear that additional cloud-based protection was essential. They had already been very satisfied with Infoblox. The NIOS DDI solution quickly proved to be extremely stable, and it supported the IT team with administration and significantly reduced their workload. Based on this positive experience of Infoblox, JobRad decided to move forward with an Infoblox security solution.
The Solution: Network Security in the Cloud
Goch and Heinzmann see the DNS as the crucial point when it comes to network security. “Everything runs via the DNS, so a lot can go wrong—there doesn’t even have to be any ill intent at the root of it. Just accidentally clicking on a fake URL can be enough,” says Goch. “It was clear to us that our previous protection was not sufficient for the way we worked. We needed to use the cloud and upgrade in terms of cyber security.” After extensive consultation with Infoblox and its long-standing IT service provider, JobRad was convinced that BloxOne Threat Defense had the potential to fill the gap in its security.
All-Around Protection and Transparency with Hybrid Security Solution
This hybrid network security solution provides the company with the visibility and control over DNS traffic that it previously lacked. BloxOne Threat Defense is an important information source for JobRad. It shows exactly where the data is going and what is happening to it and makes possible comprehensive analyses for ongoing optimization. The solution starts at the critical DNS level and detects and stops threats early. Thanks to the hybrid structure, employees and mobile devices located at home or in mobile offices outside the company environment can now also be secured, where previously these were not covered by the onpremises DDI solution. The facility to easily integrate BloxOne Threat Defense with other existing systems, such as the firewall and NAC (Network Access Control), is also a relevant factor for JobRad, which will soon be implementing these integrations.
The Result: Stronger Protections for JobRad and Its Employees
For JobRad, adopting BloxOne Threat Defense is a logical follow-on from its previous collaboration with Infoblox. As far as implementation is concerned, the company is still in the relatively early stages, but it is already convinced of the solution’s capabilities. “The move to the cloud and the implementation of BloxOne Threat Defense are additional, key components in our strategy for protecting JobRad and our employees in the future and how we will work towards full transparency and information capability,” says Goch. “It was also important to us to work with a partner who does not offer DNS security as simply another product among a wide range of solutions, but who has its core competency in this area. This is 100 percent the case with the Infoblox specialists, and that gives us real peace of mind.”
Having a reliable and proactively supportive partner like Infoblox is something Goch, Heinzmann and their colleagues appreciate. However, they also know that they need to be able to use these solutions correctly and to be self-sufficient. Ongoing education on this topic is therefore high on the agenda of JobRad’s IT team. “We can certainly imagine moving the NIOS DDI solution to the cloud, and we will definitely rely on Infoblox’s support once more for this!” says Goch.