Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative

Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative Saves 50 Hours per Week on Security Monitoring

3,500 sq. miles
Electric service area
350+
Network users
50 hours
Saved every week

Since we are an electrical entity, our environment is a target, and we have to keep our security at the highest level. With visibility into what is going on, you can more easily spot malicious activity and clean up the IT department’s internal activity. Shortly after we got Netwrix Auditor, we identified some security gaps and tightened up our procedures and policies. It also helped us create a more efficient IT environment, saving us over 50 hours a week.

Matt Huffman, System Analyst, Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative

Challenge
  • Secure critical IT infrastructure, which is 99% virtualized and includes two data centers, four domain controllers and six SQL databases that contain sensitive corporate and customer data.
  • Gain visibility into the activity of the 350+ network users in order to mitigate the risk of insider misuse and evaluate current cyber-security program.

Our SQL contains extremely vital data, but it took too much time to audit all the servers. I like that Netwrix Auditor shows me all activity in one report. Recently, it helped me detect unauthorized changes made to the data and quickly find an employee who gained DBA rights by mistake.

Matt Huffman, System Analyst, 

Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative

Netwrix Solution

Netwrix Auditor was recommended to Matt by a former colleague. After a successful trial, Matt found Netwrix Auditor to be the most suitable solution, because it was very easy to set up, and all the reports delivered valid information in the easy-to-read way.

 

  • Centralized control over critical systems. Netwrix Auditor summarizes activity and configuration states across all critical systems in a unified platform, so Matt needs only 10 minutes a day to review all scheduled reports and keep tabs on critical changes, such as the modification of a domain controller or the creation of a virtual machine.
  • Visibility into user accounts. The software enabled Matt's team detect and remove over 50 inactive Active Directory accounts that could be maliciously used by hackers and they would not even recognize it. Moreover, Matt was fully aware that we had people with elevated rights but did not know where. Netwrix Auditor provided him evidentiary documentation, so he could prune out excessive permissions to minimize insider risks.
  • Visibility into SQL databases. Netwrix Auditor consolidates changes made to objects and permissions, along with successful and failed logons, across all SQL servers. Thanks to this information, Matt detected unauthorized changes made to the data and quickly found an employee who gained DBA rights by mistake.
Key Benefits
  • Enterprise-level view of the entire IT environment
  • Mitigation of insider threats
  • Improved database security
Customer Profile

Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative (GVEC) is one of the largest cooperatives in Texas, U.S. It specializes in delivering electricity, internet services, energy-efficient appliances, AC/heating sales and service, and solar options. GVEC serves over 85,000 consumers throughout South Texas and has been in business for over 75 years. 

Customer: Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative

Industry: Energy & Utilities

Website: www.gvec.org