Overview

This European-based company was founded in the mid-1980s and today is one of the largest prepared-food delivery chains (by the number of stores) on the Continent. Today, the company encompasses several well-known brands and employs tens of thousands of people in dozens of countries. The company is widely considered an expert brand in prepared food delivery, having started with a pure-play delivery model based on the digital medium without any “walk-in” or “dine-in” options.

Challenges

In 2014, cyberattacks on the company’s website were increasing in frequency and severity and resulted in customer complaints. To preserve their place in the market and continue to satisfy customers, they needed a way to block the bad traffic that was harming the customer ordering experience while ensuring that the legitimate eCommerce traffic continued to get through to the website.

Deployment

The company chose the Imperva Web Application Firewall as a cornerstone technology for mitigating cyberattacks and driving its digital transformation. “The infrastructure that supports our eCommerce activity continues to be attacked all the time”, the company’s CISO explained. “The Imperva Cloud WAF enables us to block the bad traffic and create a seamless ordering experience for our customers.” Ensuring optimal eCommerce platform performance is always critical for a “born to deliver” enterprise. This has never been truer than during the pandemic when many more people increased their orders in food delivery and at the same time cybercriminals launched more attacks than ever. The WAF helped them overcome these challenges. “Most of our sales come in through our website and mobile applications. I am convinced that over the last year if we were not working with Imperva, we would have lost a lot of money”, he added.

Support enhances the value of the solution

To manage their WAF and ensure the continuing optimal performance of their eCommerce platform, the company works with Evolutio, an Imperva Gold Partner solutions provider in network and infrastructure security that is based in Spain. As the company’s business and technology evolve, Evolutio works directly with Imperva to meet unexpected challenges as they arise. “When there’s a heavy attack or another serious issue, Evolutio provides us with critical information about the situation which in turn triggers a crisis committee to solve the problem,” the company’s CISO explained.

The solution is designed to scale up with the business

As the company grows, Imperva technology managed by Evolutio will scale up to meet new business demands. “We use every module that comes with the Cloud WAF at the enterprise level; Advanced Bot Protection, Advanced Analytics, all of it,” said the CISO. “One of the most important modules is ABP (Advanced Bot Protection) because in the past most attacks have been made on our website. But in the last year we have seen more attacks on mobile applications and the attacks are getting stronger and more sophisticated. We see that Imperva is growing with our business and we expect this to continue going forward. I would suggest that anyone that depends heavily on mobile applications and is looking to acquire the Imperva WAF needs also to have the ABP module to protect mobile applications.”

Results

Since 2014, while Imperva has provided security for their eCommerce platforms, the company has recorded that attacks have become larger, more frequent, and more intense year after year. Over that period, Imperva’s Cloud WAF and the associated modules have been very effective in helping the company thwart these attacks and contribute significantly to the overall success and growth of the business. “We are a textbook example of how a company that depends so heavily on its website and mobile applications can use Web Application Firewall technology effectively to help ensure optimal eCommerce performance and maintain a seamless and safe customer experience. Not just today, but as we grow in the future”, concluded the CISO.