Our client, a leading American pharmaceutical company with a 150-year legacy and global reach, is renowned for pioneering breakthroughs in critical healthcare areas. They actively contribute to vital vaccines and treatments and are committed to advancing global health. Recognizing the evolving security landscape, they embarked on a transformative journey to strengthen their digital fortress. Virtusa partnered with them to implement Microsoft 365 and Azure security solutions, safeguarding their critical systems and enabling continued innovation.
Evolving security needs
The pharmaceutical giant sought to bolster security measures for accessing their applications and services in the following areas:
- Evolving threats: Cyberattacks targeting sensitive healthcare data demanded a robust defense.
- Legacy methods: Traditional passwords and MFA were no longer sufficient.
- Compliance: Strict industry regulations (HIPAA, GDPR) require a compliant solution.
- Privileged accounts: Stricter controls were needed to prevent unauthorized access.
- Workforce mobility: Secure access was needed regardless of location or device.
These challenges necessitated a shift towards a more sophisticated security framework with features like MFA, centralized identity management, device compliance, and conditional access controls.
A two-phased approach with Microsoft Entra
Virtusa designed a two-phased strategy to seamlessly transition users to a more secure environment. This involved migrating workstations from domain-joined to hybrid-joined and, eventually, cloud-only configurations.
Leveraging Microsoft Entra, a cloud-based identity and access management service, Virtusa implemented a comprehensive solution that included:
- Seamless user synchronization: All users were synchronized to Entra through Azure AD Connect, creating a centralized identity management system.
- Enhanced authentication: Access-controlled servers migrated to Entra ID for multi-factor authentication. Privileged accounts benefitted from password-vaulted access, replacing the previous PingID solution.
- Device compliance: Microsoft Intune enforced device compliance standards across all user workstations.
- Passwordless workstations: Standard users were empowered with Windows Hello for Business, eliminating passwords as a vulnerability.
- Modern authentication: Microsoft Authenticator became the primary authentication method, with phone sign-in options reducing reliance on passwords.
- Streamlined onboarding: Temporary access passes facilitated a smoother onboarding process for new hires.
- Fortified MFA: FIDO2 security keys, integrated with Windows security, were deployed to strengthen MFA across cloud accounts.
- Conditional access policies: Entra ID conditional access policies were implemented to enforce device compliance and stronger authentication for privileged users.