The Challenge
BTG played a critical role in supporting NZ Bus through a period of staff change. During this period, they temporarily needed IT resources to ensure continued support. BTG was able to offer engineering staff onsite as needed during this time, before NZ Bus transitioned to a consistent support arrangement.
NZ Bus also wanted to improve their cyber security.
“Spam was getting through the protection we had in place, exposing our staff to links to fake login sites with the potential for stolen passwords and malicious attachments.” Kurt Viljoen, Group Manager, IT Systems at NZ Bus explains, “The spam was a time waster at best, and at worst could expose our systems, so we needed to take action.”
BTG suggested two solutions to combat the issue.
Firstly, more effective email protection. Mimecast was selected by BTG as being above the rest at keeping up-to-date and protecting against the latest attacks. “BTG did a great job changing to Mimecast. I found it easier to administer and easy to see what is happening. The best thing was, of course, all the spam just stopped.“ Viljoen reports.
The second step was to build a cyber-security awareness program.
Brad Moore, head of BTG’s security team explains,
“Attackers can target your staff with a range of social engineering techniques and no security tool will stop 100% of malicious email, making user awareness a key part of security. Effective training ensures users understand key risks, know what to do when they see something suspicious, and feel comfortable reporting incidents.”
Phishing simulations raise awareness throughout your business and let staff practice the skills they learn. Training effectiveness can be tracked and measured through comprehensive reporting.
“One of the first things we did was run a ‘phishing simulation test’ on the staff.” A phishing email looks somewhat legitimate but isn’t, its fishing for information or for the recipient to click on a malicious link. “When 20% of the staff clicked on the phishing simulation test I was extremely concerned,” Kurt said. “Staff training has been very effective and with the continued training staff are becoming more cyber-aware and the reports are showing less staff being fooled by the phishing campaigns,” says Viljoen.
Delivery
BTG work with NZ Bus to deliver a wide range of their technology needs, including:
- IT user support for NZ Bus’s staff.
- ManageIT Service for their 250 devices nation-wide.
- Helpdesk to triage all incidents and service requests
- Lead engineer who works in partnership with the IT Manager
- Email protection.
- Cyber security training.
- Technology advice and support.
“BTG made the entire process transparent and professional. They provided us with all the details we needed to be able to assess the solutions objectively. I felt confident that I had found the right IT partner and a business that could confidently commit to a multi-year contract.” explains Viljoen.
NZ Bus utilizes BTG’s ManageIT service. This solution uses NZ Bus’s own equipment but is managed by BTG. ManageIT gives certainty of one fixed monthly fee for all operational IT infrastructure support requirements, with the confidence of knowing 40+ skilled engineers are looking after your systems.
“We do have some internal resources to handle many aspects of the IT infrastructure here. But, we have around 250 devices including 44 servers around the country. Keeping them all up-to-date and running smoothly requires a skilled team and BTG have proven more than capable of managing it.” says Viljoen.
About BTG
BTG is a New Zealand-based technology service provider creating better connections for growing businesses here and across the ditch. With 80+ staff and 400+ customers across New Zealand and Australia, BTG specialise in expert engineering services, quality IT products and dedicated account management.
