An all-star security lineup
"What we're trying to do is slow down the bad actors, make it more difficult and challenging for them to try to attack the scoreboard or try to impact what's happening on the field," Maldonado said of the main goal of game day cybersecurity operations. "With Cisco by our side, we were confident that we can quickly anticipate any issues and deliver the seamless gameday experience that our players, staff, and fans have come to expect."
The right tools and the right team are key in making sure things run smoothly, avoiding disruptions to the game, and safeguarding the data and devices that make mission-critical gameday operations possible.
"We try to reduce the footprint or vector of attack by making very specific design choices around how individuals will connect to our environment and who's allowed to connect to our environment," Maldonado said.
To protect their environment on Super Bowl Sunday, the NFL used a collection of integrated security solutions working in tandem:
- Cisco Umbrella combines several security technologies into one, cloud-delivered solution, protecting users from internet-based risks on or off the network. Umbrella prevents phishing, malware, and ransomware and safeguards connections to cloud applications without sacrificing performance.
- Cisco Secure Firewall helps organizations to obtain end-to-end visibility and simplified security management across distributed and hybrid networks. It provides superior threat detection and prevention for the modern network.
- With Cisco Secure Malware Analytics, organizations can uncover exactly what a piece of malware is doing, how large of a risk it poses, and how to mitigate it. Secure Malware Analytics rapidly inspects files and suspicious behavior to help speed up incident investigations.
- Cisco security technologies are fed timely, in-depth intelligence by Cisco Talos, the world's largest commercial threat intelligence organization. Incident commanders from Talos Incident Response, as well as members of our Customer Experience team, were on site with the NFL for the whole game.