Computer Parts Manufacturer Monitors and Locates Data Traffic Across its Organization

Provide specialized network statistics and visualization with Progress® Flowmon® and never overlook under-the-radar and abnormal security data traffic.

Sunrex Technology began to experience recurring IT and network security incidents. The computer manufacturer’s offices and warehouses were using basic cybersecurity software with firewalls and anti-virus software. Sunrex’s IT team utilized Progress Flowmon as a singular platform to monitor and locate data traffic across the organization. Not only did this fill in the blindspots between its locations, but improved both the data flow and the ability to locate issues within the employee intranet.

Since 1991, Sunrex Technology has been a global leader in the computer part manufacturing space. The company specializes in creating keyboards for notebooks and is one of this part’s top three international suppliers.

Sunrex’s primary assembly plant is in China; its distributors are all over Asia, Europe and North America. As the business expanded across the globe, with molding plants and design centers being placed in China and Taiwan, Sunrex required a malleable information security system to provide the best possible network architecture to efficiently allocate network resources. However, Sunrex began to experience issues with its information security systems. Notably, cyberattacks against supply chain management companies were becoming commonplace. And Sunrex was no exception.

For example, many of the factories putting together the keyboards and components relied on basic firewalls and anti-virus software for their networks. They were not equipped with the ability to find under-the-radar threats, similar to the ones attacking various supply chain companies. Additionally, the employee intranet was not protected with proper security measures and did not have any analysis tools for the Sunrex’s IT team. Lastly, the networks of all the factories, distribution warehouses and office buildings were acting independently from the Chinese office’s network.

“We often encountered this problem with the analysis of information security in various places,” said Lin Hongjie, Information Security Deputy Manager, Sunrex Technology. “As factories only rely on firewalls and anti-virus software, but there is a risk of not being able to find hidden information security concerns.”

Seeking to maintain their growth, but also combat these ongoing attacks, Hongjie and team wanted to deploy a singular solution from Sunrex’s main headquarters in Taiwan, to visualize its large network and solve the many ongoing security issues at hand. But, Honjie needed to find a solution quickly.

“With Flowmon’s analysis, you can grasp potential information security loopholes or abnormal behaviors and reduce operational risks,” said Hongjie. “The single platform provided by the Flowmon solution breaks the information gap between factories and offices, allowing all the security information of each factory office to be inspected in real time, and can also fully grasp whether there is suspicious behavior in the intranet connection, and can confirm internal services.”

After careful consideration, Sunrex eventually chose Progress® Flowmon®. The computer part manufacturer took note of network visualization integration capabilities, network behavior analysis and data collection techniques, among other features.

Hongjie concluded the most essential feature of Flowmon to deploy is its network traffic visualization capabilities. Utilizing Flowmon Probe, the entire network is given a full view. Since Sunrex has such a large, distributed network, this proved to be incredibly helpful and enabled the IT team to fill in the gaps inbetween the offices, warehouses and other buildings.

Additionally, the team is using Flowmon Collectors and Flowmon ADS, with each of these tools helping with analysis and collecting statistics with users. Abnormal network activity can occur anywhere. With these tools, Sunrex can detect anomalies and then, send each back to the main office and efficiently present them for analysis.