Insurance Agency Life Assist Adopts i-FILTER@Cloud
— Life Assist, an insurance agency that handles important personal information, ensures the appropriate internet use of all employees —

Information security solutions provider Digital Arts Inc. (headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan; CEO: Toshio Dogu; hereinafter referred to as "Digital Arts"; Code 2326) is pleased to announce that on November 16,
it released a case study of the introduction of the cloud-based web security product i-FILTER@Cloud by Life Assist Co., Ltd. (headquarters: Niigata-city, Niigata, Japan; President: Fumiki Minagawa ).

i-FILTER@Cloud prevents malware infection before you even know there was a risk

Life Assist is an insurance agency with 12 insurance consultation stores called "Hoken no Life Assist" and 12 branches staffed with visiting sales workers mainly in Niigata Prefecture and the northern Kanto area. In 2020, the company became part of the ORIX Group. With a customer-first focus, they are rooted in the community and provide optimal coverage and high-quality services that suit their customers' lifestyles.

The company manages each insurance company's systems, product comparison systems, and customer information management systems on a public cloud. While its employees won’t take store devices home, they take door-to-door-sales devices home or away from the office, accessing the cloud system from various networks. To ensure security even under such usage conditions, the company installed i-FILTER@Cloud on all devices that use the Internet for work.

i-FILTER@Cloud is a web security product that categorizes searchable URLs in Japan and registers them in a DB (database) to offer whitelisting that blocks access to unknown URLs not registered in the DB.

Life Assist uses the whitelisting feature to further block categories such as adult material, crime and violence, illegal IT technology, and gambling, which are not necessary for business purposes, as well as categories such as social media and file uploaders, which can lead to information leaks. As a security measure, it naturally also blocks threatening websites and fake websites.

Checking the logs, Life Assist sees that there are quite a few unintentional attempts to access dangerous websites and that i-FILTER@Cloud is preventing malware infection without them noticing.

Only downloads are allowed from online storage, Microsoft 365 access controls and device quarantine which disconnects devices are used.

Life Assist exchanges files with external parties through a variety of online storage services. For their work, it is difficult to block all online storage for fear of personal information leaks. Therefore, they have reduced the risk of leaks by utilizing i-FILTER@Cloud's Web Service Control feature, which controls operations such as logins, writing, uploading, and downloading for each web service. Specifically for online storage, they allow downloads only.

In addition, they use Microsoft 365 and through i-FILTER@Cloud have implemented access controls for it. Initially, access to business accounts from personal devices and vice versa was possible, but they have achieved the access control that only business devices are allowed to access business accounts. They also utilize device quarantine, a feature that isolates devices suspected of being infected with malware from the internet.

Life Assist is currently in the process of expanding both in size and number of employees. With this, the company must ensure a secure environment that can withstand the growing number of employees and are considering taking further security measures in the future.


https://www.daj.jp/bs/case/case94/


i-FILTER@Cloud is a cloud-based web security product. In addition to preventing viewing harmful information and websites unrelated to business with its filtering feature, it also prevents external attacks and internal information leaks. A database covering searchable URLs in Japan blocks access to dangerous websites and unknown threats, creating a network in which only websites that Digital Arts has determined to be safe can be accessed.