Allied Mineral Products Strengthens IP Protection and Prevents Data Exfiltration Across 1,100 Endpoints
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Key Takeaways
- Proactive Threat Mitigation: Fluid Helix transitioned from a reactive security posture to a proactive “deny-by-default” whitelisting approach.
- Lightweight Performance: BrowseControl provided a lightweight filtering solution that functioned even at remote sites.
- Seamless Scalability: The MSP successfully managed and enforced unique internet policies across more than 150 client locations.
- Reliable Policy Enforcement: CurrentWare replaced an inconsistent competitor tool that frequently failed to block unauthorized websites.
- Enhanced Client Trust: The simplicity of the management console allowed Fluid Helix to give trusted clients limited access for on-the-fly changes.
- Support-Driven Partnership: The company valued CurrentWare’s responsive technical support as a critical factor in maintaining their managed service quality.
Overview
Allied Mineral Products is a global manufacturer specializing in refractory materials used in extreme heat environments such as furnaces, boilers, and launchpad infrastructure. The company’s products are essential in industries where materials must withstand extremely high temperatures.
Because Allied Mineral Products maintains an internal research and development department, protecting proprietary intellectual property is a core priority. The company needed a proactive way to prevent sensitive R&D data from being removed from the organization by employees or departing staff.
To address these risks, Allied Mineral Products deployed CurrentWare across its environment to control removable media access, gain visibility into employee activity, and reduce the risk of insider driven data loss.
“Bar none, in my 15 years of enterprise IT work, CurrentWare support is simply the best I’ve worked with.”
Caleb Watson
Senior Systems Administrator, Allied Mineral Products
The Challenge
Protecting Intellectual Property From Insider Data Exfiltration
Before implementing CurrentWare, Allied Mineral Products relied heavily on Microsoft security tools for visibility into data activity. While these solutions provided useful monitoring capabilities, they lacked the proactive enforcement needed to stop sensitive information from being copied or removed from the organization in real time.
The IT team identified several risks:
- Insider threats involving employees copying company data before leaving the organization
- Limited ability to proactively prevent data from being copied to USB devices
- Delayed detection when suspicious activity occurred
- Fragmented visibility across multiple systems
Although the company had not experienced a catastrophic breach, past incidents involving data exfiltration demonstrated that the risk could translate into real financial consequences.
When proprietary information is removed and used to establish competing businesses or capture customers, the resulting loss of revenue can be substantial. As a result, leadership tasked the IT team with implementing an agent based solution capable of proactively controlling data movement.
“Protecting our intellectual property is extremely important to us. We needed a proactive solution that could prevent employees from removing sensitive data while still giving us visibility when investigations are required.”
Caleb Watson
Senior Systems Administrator, Allied Mineral Products
Deploying CurrentWare for Proactive Data Loss Prevention
After evaluating several potential solutions, the Allied Mineral Products IT team selected CurrentWare because it offered the precise functionality they needed without requiring them to replace their existing endpoint security stack.
CurrentWare enabled the team to:
- Control removable media usage across the organization
- Monitor data movement activity from endpoints
- Maintain layered security alongside existing Microsoft security tools
- Deploy an agent-based solution capable of proactive enforcement
The deployment covered more than 1,100 endpoints across the organization.
“If we put in a ticket, we can expect a response typically that day, and if not certainly within an actionable amount of time. If we ask for a feature that doesn’t exist, you tell us it’s going into development for a future release. That kind of responsiveness and customer attention is really impressive.”
“It was an easy choice made by the sales team we were working with at the time. The fact that I have pretty good familiarity with Mike is one of the big reasons we wanted to go with CurrentWare. You guys sold it through effort, your commitment to giving us what we needed, flexibility, and availability was the differentiator.”
Caleb Watson
Senior Systems Administrator, Allied Mineral Products
Implementation with rollout completed in phases using several deployment methods:
- Active Directory startup scripts
- Microsoft Intune deployment
- Remote monitoring and management (RMM) tools
- Automated PowerShell scripting
The IT team achieved a 90% automated deployment rate, with the remaining systems installed manually to ensure complete coverage.
“When something happens, it’s nice to have that visibility immediately. We can quickly determine whether someone copied files or moved data.”
Caleb Watson
Senior Systems Administrator, Allied Mineral Products
The Results
Reduced Data Exfiltration Risk and Greater Operational Visibility
Since implementing CurrentWare, Allied Mineral Products has significantly strengthened its ability to prevent sensitive information from leaving the organization.
Key outcomes include:
Reduction in USB Data Exfiltration
By restricting and monitoring removable media access, the company has reduced the likelihood of employees copying sensitive files to external drives.
Layered Security Architecture
CurrentWare now works alongside existing security tools to create a multi layered defense strategy that blocks unauthorized data transfers while maintaining visibility.
Faster Investigation of Security Events
When potential incidents arise, the IT team can quickly review activity data to determine what actions occurred and whether sensitive files were involved.
Improved Peace of Mind for IT Leadership
Knowing that sensitive company information is protected provides reassurance to both IT administrators and executive leadership.
The number of “all hands” incident investigations related to suspected data exfiltration has decreased significantly since deploying CurrentWare.
Expanding Value With Workforce Monitoring
Following the success of AccessPatrol, the company expanded its use of CurrentWare by implementing BrowseReporter for targeted investigations and productivity insights.
Rather than deploying workforce monitoring across all users, the IT team uses BrowseReporter strategically when managers need visibility into specific situations, such as:
- Investigating potential productivity issues among remote employees
- Reviewing activity during internal investigations
- Generating clear reports for management
Previously, gathering this information required assembling data from multiple tools. With CurrentWare, the IT team can now access activity insights through a single dashboard.
“CurrentWare support is simply the best I’ve worked with in 15 years of enterprise IT. The responsiveness and willingness to help customers is a major differentiator.”
Caleb Watson
Senior Systems Administrator, Allied Mineral Products
Why Allied Mineral Products Chose CurrentWare
While several solutions were evaluated, CurrentWare ultimately stood out for three key reasons:
Flexible Security Without Replacing Existing Tools
Many competing solutions required switching endpoint detection platforms. CurrentWare filled a specific security gap without disrupting the existing stack.
Ease of Deployment
The agent based deployment integrated easily with the organization’s existing infrastructure and management tools.
Exceptional Customer Support
According to the Allied Mineral Products IT team, CurrentWare’s support team was a major differentiator throughout the evaluation and deployment process.
Support requests are typically answered the same day, and the team works closely with customers to address technical questions and incorporate product feedback into future releases.
The Future
Allied Mineral Products continues to rely on CurrentWare as a core component of its data protection strategy. As the organization grows, the IT team plans to expand its use of CurrentWare capabilities to further strengthen visibility and security across its endpoint environment.
“Because it’s much harder now to exfiltrate data from our organization, we’ve saved the company a significant amount in potential lost revenue.”
Caleb Watson
Senior Systems Administrator, Allied Mineral Products
With proactive data protection, strong customer support, and flexible deployment options, CurrentWare has become a key tool for safeguarding the company’s intellectual property and maintaining operational security.
Caleb Watson, is the Senior Systems Administrator at Allied Mineral Products, responsible for server infrastructure, virtualization, and security architecture. He led the evaluation and deployment of CurrentWare across more than 1,100 endpoints to strengthen insider threat protection and safeguard the company’s intellectual property.