Case Study

17 May 2023
8 minutes read

Securing and safeguarding Bidvest’s employees, customers and partners from email phishing, spoofing and impersonation attacks

“With the rise of impersonation and phishing attacks, Bidvest Services needed to take every measure to ensure our employees, customers and supply chains were protected from cybercriminals.”

Gareth Burmeister

Chief Financial Officer – Bidvest FM Cluster

Business-to-business services, trading and distribution group

9.2bn

Revenue in ZAR

132k

Employees

25

Companies

300k

Customers

Listed on the JSE, South Africa. Trading on 4 continents

Operations in the areas of:

Consumer
Pharmaceutical & industrial products
Financial services
Freight management
Office & print solutions
Outsourced hard & soft services
Travel services
Automotive retailing

Cybercriminals are becoming increasingly skilled at sending emails from any email address, using the brand name of any company they pick and with all the correct styling, making it virtually impossible for receivers to spot the fraudster.

The security of the Bidvest brand and its stakeholders is a priority for the company, and “significant attention has been given to the identification and management of cybersecurity risks” across the Group’s 25 companies.

The fraudulent use of Bidvest’s brand identity, impersonation of employees, and the cloning of its website were identified as risks at Bidvest. To ensure that the highest security standards for email security were in place across its entire email environment, the company brought in Sendmarc and its implementation partners Executive Solutions, BUI, and Cube IT.

Bidvest’s email real estate is vast with 140 registered names, 85 of which are actively in use. Each year over 132 000 employees on four continents send over 15 million emails bearing a registered Bidvest name, and over 300 000 customers receive email from the company annually.

The clients challenge

Ut eget tempor magna. In suscipit metus sit amet pharetra posuere. Aenean tincidunt, felis at lacinia tempus, est arcu rutrum nisi, eu maximus orci nunc ut justo. Phasellus ultrices vitae dolor sit amet mollis. Nunc vel purus vel libero aliquam sollicitudin nec at sapien.

Integer eleifend ultrices metus sit amet laoreet. Nullam luctus, libero ut luctus vulputate, eros ipsum convallis purus, sit amet vehicula quam justo ac nulla. Integer id risus ac nibh vehicula euismod. Vivamus quis urna id lacus pharetra dignissim. Sed vel lorem sed orci mollis congue vel a sem. Sed vel congue nunc. Donec vel ex nec lacus condimentum malesuada. Sed id purus eros. Vivamus vel odio nec magna convallis malesuada.

Bidvest’s requirements

Fast & efficient implementation

Protecting Bidvest’s large cyber real estate and extensive stakeholder groups was identified as a priority.

Technical capability & qualifications

Email is the Group’s most-used business communication tool, and the highest security standards and protocols needed to be implemented.

Expertise, experience & dedication

It was critical to ensure that the Group’s email environment is protected from fraudulent use. Making sure employees, customers and partners can be confident that emails with a Bidvest company name are the real thing required specialist skills in this area.

What the client had to say:

“We chose Sendmarc, an experienced security services provider, and managed services provider Executive Solutions to ensure timeous and cost-effective DMARC compliance across all our domains.”

Gareth Burmeister

Chief Financial Officer – Bidvest FM Cluster

Complexities of the Bidvest's environment

Diversified group with multiple stakeholders
Hundred of active and dormant domains and subdomain names
Limited to zero visibility of their email ecosystems
Breadth of orchestration and coordination required across all group companies
Significant number of third- party email service providers sending emails on behalf of group companies
Multiple levels of email security across the group and inconsistent application of SPF and DKIM protocols

Technical Solution

DMARC: Domain-based Messaging Authentication, Reporting and Compliance

Implementation

SENDMARC + ES + BUI + CUBE IT

Results

85 active domains now at the highest compliance standard: p=reject
15 million emails sent annually are now authenticated as the real thing with all others rejected
Environments secured and safeguarded (p=reject) within 90 days
Full visibility of entire email environment (active and inactive domains)
Employees, customers and partners protected against brand name abuse
Reporting and IT dashboards provide real time view for real-time action and prevention
Trained IT team to ensure familiarity with Sendmarc’s platform
Lower costs and reduced time to implementation compared to other providers due to Sendmarc platform and automation
Email environment derisked and fully compliant with highest protocols
Automation and intelligence maintaining p=reject status
Proactive management of environment
Reputation of Bidvest group protected from email fraud