Vodafone partners with Analysys Mason to boost cybersecurity in Germany

Over an 18-month period, Vodafone worked with global management consultancy Analysys Mason on improving the cyber security frontiers of its German business.

Vodafone, a major telecommunications player in Germany and the third-largest provider of mobile phone services in the country, was looking to address vulnerabilities in its critical infrastructure when it tapped Analysys Mason as a partner in its cybersecurity professionalisation journey.

The main objective was to address network resilience, legal risks, data security, and issues related to confidentiality. Cybersecurity is a major concern for businesses in a wide range of industries, especially those in telecommunications.

Cybersecurity

Over the course of the project, Analysys Mason worked closely with Vodafone’s German operating unit to bring its IT security monitoring up to speed in order to minimize short-term vulnerabilities. In addition to that, the teams collected data and worked on re-engineering corporate systems and relationships to be able to gain long-term insights.

With the consultants an integral part of Vodafone’s project team, they were able to design custom dashboards that created KPIs reflecting the company’s vulnerability management. The teams also created an impact rating system that provided a clear idea of the severity of threats and possible remedies.

Data was another area of focus for the project team. By mapping and transforming data flows, relevant departments with Vodafone are now able to better create insights they may need, and apply those in their decision-making cycles.

Analysys Mason functioned as a sort of bridge between departments, facilitating the identification of collaboration areas, driving joint efforts, overseeing progress of improvement initiatives, and supporting the delivery of the transformation in processes, systems and people.

Compliance and more

Besides meeting internal targets, the boosted maturity of cybersecurity monitoring and management helped Vodafone comply with new, higher standards in the domain. The impact of the work was confirmed in an independent assessment, which concluded that Vodafone had improved its vulnerability performance over the time span of the project.

More broadly, the collaboration helped Vodafone to better understand where its cybersecurity strategy was lacking. With these insights, the German business was able to make better use of its existing cybersecurity resources, saving time and money while also ultimately boosting the company’s operations and reputation. It also helped the telecom business sharpen its cybersecurity strategy going forward.

Cybersecurity is increasingly a major threat in Europe, as cyber attacks become more sophisticated and the volume of attacks also increase. Both individual and state-backed malicious actors have pulled off complex schemes to hack into internal systems of companies small and large in recent years, causing serious economic but also reputational damage.