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Berliner Stadtreinigungsbetriebe rolls out Microsoft Defender

Berliner Stadtreinigungsbetriebe (BSR) rolled out Microsoft Defender cost-effectively with the help of Skaylink – and they are thrilled by the initial results.

Berliner Stadtreinigungsbetriebe is Germany’s largest municipal city cleaning company. Since 2023, they have been subject to the information security requirements of the new KRITIS sector for municipal waste disposal. Therefore, the existing virus scanner needed to be promptly replaced with modern solutions. Microsoft was technologically the most interesting option. With Skaylink as an IT partner and the FastTrack program, they have taken the step toward more security.

Over 6,000 employees who take care of Berlin’s 1.5 million kilometers of streets and sidewalks and the waste from 2 million households: Tackling huge projects is second nature for BSR. Munich, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt am Main would all be able to fit inside the area that the municipal company is responsible for at the same time. It is therefore especially important to protect their own data and that of their customers: As an infrastructure of general interest, municipal waste disposal has been designated a KRITIS sector since 2023 – and the data from the German capital is particularly interesting.

The previous virus scanner no longer met the new, strict security requirements: It was not suitable for a state-of-the-art security information and event management (SIEM) solution. Internally, the IT Security team had long had Microsoft in mind; the broad portfolio of security solutions and full integrability were attractive, but there were concerns about the costs. “But when Microsoft 365 was introduced for the entire infrastructure, it finally seemed logical to rely on Microsoft for security as well,” says Dennis Pirczalik, Cyber Security Senior Expert at BSR. In early 2024, BSR began searching for a suitable IT partner.

Skaylink won the contract for the project. As one of the top partners in Germany, Skaylink is certified, among other things, for Modern Work and Security, and is familiar with enterprise-scale environments. “Skaylink generally has a good reputation, which is why we had them show us everything in a workshop,” says Pirczalik.

Transparent costs with FastTrack & module solutions

The security specialists’ expertise was impressive – and a good solution was also found for the cost issue: Through FastTrack, a Microsoft program, Skaylink was able to provide BSR with free trial licenses for the proof of concept (PoC). Together, they selected the security modules that they wanted to roll out first. This meant that BSR did not have to work with the entire range of solutions during the roll-out, keeping costs transparent.

The plan was to ultimately roll out Microsoft Defender solutions for 2,700 users. The challenge: Nobody’s work was to be disrupted during the changeover, since this would quickly have a direct impact on the public. “Many of our apps run on the servers. This could have easily caused bottlenecks,” says Pirczalik, explaining the initial situation. However, the security experts at Skaylink responded flexibly to the needs of the municipal company and found a way to implement the new solutions without any hiccups.

The special desktop environment was another stumbling block. For Microsoft Defender, the environment is a challenge: Many false-positive messages are generated quickly. Still, Skaylink was able to precisely adapt Defender to it. Microsoft Defender solutions have replaced the previous virus scanner and secure the BSR domain.

Pirczalik praises the fact that they were always able to check things with Skaylink. There was an expert contact for every topic. “We handled this project together masterfully – and we’re really proud of that!”

“We can now really see what is being run on the clients.”

Dennis Pirczalik, Cyber Security Senior Expert BSR

By the end of 2024, the roll-out was complete. And the BSR IT team led by Dennis Pirczalik is enjoying the added value of the new technologies each and every day: “We can now really see what is being run on the clients.” They have discovered a lot of outdated data and old applications on network drives, which they are now removing. This is good for security and allows efficient use of the existing capacities.

And it’s not just the infrastructure that the IT team now has a better picture of: Microsoft Defender lets you see every failed login attempt. “It’s like suddenly turning on spotlights in a dark cave instead of just one tiny light bulb,” says Pirczalik.

The BSR team is currently receiving additional training on the security solutions from Skaylink. “There is so much potential there that we haven’t fully tapped into yet.” Skaylink is currently assisting in connecting the Microsoft applications to an SIEM. The next planned step is the introduction of a Security Operations Center (SOC). For Pirczalik, the takeaway is clear: “We would work with Skaylink again any time. From our perspective, they are the top service providers when it comes to Microsoft technology.”

The project at a glance:

Company:

Berliner Stadtreinigungsbetriebe (BSR)

Challenge:

To comply with the KRITIS (critical infrastructure) requirements, the existing virus scanner needed to be replaced as cost-effectively as possible by modern security solutions.

Solution:

A tailored security landscape with transparent costs was able to be implemented using trial licenses via FastTrack for the PoC and selected modular solutions.

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