Legal Group Protects Its Distributed Office Networks with Untangle

Background

Rathbone Group, LLC is a national subrogation law firm headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, serving clients throughout all stages of the subrogation claim process. Rathbone represents insurance carriers, self-insured entities, and third party administrators, with multiple offices that serve the United States, Canada, and the US Islands. Jeffrey Kaput is the Director of IT at Rathbone, responsible for all things IT-related across their multiple office locations. Kaput must ensure adequate network security and connectivity for their over 90 employees, 12 servers and over 40 virtual machines.

Technology Solution

Rathbone started in 2014, and as a new company with 50 employees to support, Rathbone had to be savvy with their budget for network security. Luckily, Kaput had been using Untangle previously for nine years and knew the value and effectiveness it could bring to the firm. Untangle’s NG Firewall solution was designed for small and medium businesses with limited resources and IT staff, so it was an ideal fit for Kaput to implement across their locations. “As a new company, we couldn’t afford the enterprise network security products, like Barracuda or Websense,” said Kaput. “I needed a solution that could provide comprehensive security that fit our requirements and budget.” Untangle’s NG Firewall Complete provides Rathbone with comprehensive security at the gateway with Layer-7 application filtering, allowing for complete visibility into everything happening on the network.

“We use the entire suite of applications in NG Firewall Complete,” said Kaput. “We’ve seen an increase in phishing emails within the last year, and Virus Blocker and Spam Blocker catch pretty much everything.” Untangle’s Web Filter and Application Control applications also allow Kaput to block inappropriate websites and applications and ensure employees are being productive while at work. The NG Firewall applications work seamlessly together via Untangle’s flexible Integrated Rules Engine™, enabling Kaput to create granular policies to handle every type of traffic or threat.

Since the software is already installed, all I had to do was push policies via Command Center, and we were up and running.

Kaput also needed a way to connect their dispersed locations and employees on the same network without compromising security. “We use the Tunnel VPN app to connect all our locations,” said Kaput. Tunnel VPN allows for a persistent, secure connection between NG Firewall and remote networks, so Kaput can force each remote and branch network connection to go through the headquarters’ network. This provides Kaput more security and control over the network traffic. To easily manage the network at their field offices, Kaput has deployed Untangle u25x appliances. The u25x is a desktop firewall appliance that is ideal for branch offices, allowing Kaput to stay on top of any network issues that may arise. “The appliances are easy to set up,” said Kaput. “Since the software is already installed, all I had to do was push policies via Command Center, and we were up and running.”

The Dashboard provides Kaput with a detailed view of all the traffic on the network. With customizable alerts, Kaput always knows if something is wrong. “The Dashboard gives me a direct view into each office’s network, whether an update has been completed or a device is offline,” said Kaput. “With the alerts, I get an email automatically and can resolve the issue quickly before any downtime affects employees.” The Reports app also helps Kaput provide audit reports to those clients that are required to show proof they have adequate network security in place to protect their data. “Since we house our clients’ data, we have to show proactive proof that we have network security protection. The audits show we have firewall, web filtering and intrusion prevention solutions in place,” said Kaput.

Rathbone has been using Untangle for the last four years and has plans to implement WAN Failover and WAN Balancer apps to ensure the internet is always accessible to maintain productivity. For networks with two or more internet connections, WAN Failover and WAN Balancer help maximize performance and throughput by distributing traffic with simple rules. “As we have grown as a new company, Untangle’s solution has grown with us, too. We have added more applications as our needs have changed. Untangle’s support team has always been helpful and responsive when we run into issues or questions,” said Kaput.