Cordis deploys cyber transformation, protecting patient data and blocking emerging threats

SUMMARY

Over the past 60 years, Cordis has built a reputation as a pioneer in medical devices and interventional technologies. Purchased by Hellman & Friedman in 2021, Cordis leadership enacted a two-year plan to separate from its original parent company. As part of the plan, it would rebuild its security framework from the ground up. With operations spread across 70 countries worldwide and a substantial number of hybrid and remote workers, Cordis required an approach that could handle its diverse user and application landscape, allowing it to rethink its security strategy. It created a new opportunity to prioritize patient safety and confidentiality by proactively identifying and responding to existing and emerging threats.

RESULTS

40%

Savings across its full security stack over 3 years.

<24 hours

To investigate and identify a potential vulnerability.

500K

Threats blocked in 30 days.

challenges

Strengthen compliance and resilience to threats.

Network security infrastructure and solutions needed to be fully functional within six months.
New solutions had to comply with healthcare security standards, such as those set by the FDA and NIST.
The solution needed to scale across a diverse on-prem and multicloud environment and a geographically dispersed hybrid workforce.
Security operations had to be modernized and able to scale, making it easier for a small IT team to keep up and respond to threats in a timely manner.

SOLUTION

Platform approach delivers security and simplicity.

Cordis selected the Palo Alto Networks platform because it best met its next-generation network and security imperatives. The company had drawn up detailed technical requirements to define its future environment. The requirements helped guide its selection of solutions, based on the need for secure best practices across multiple domains–from the data center to the cloud to global manufacturing locations–for a distributed and hybrid workforce. Palo Alto Networks stood out for the comprehensiveness of its security offerings. Proofs of concept quickly showed Cordis how well the platform worked with its new framework, securing on-premise environments, cloud networks and innumerable endpoints.

Security Journey

Network Security

Next-Generation Firewalls

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Prisma SASE

Secure remote access and connectivity

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Prisma Cloud

Secure the cloud

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Cortex XDR

Modernize the SOC

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Unit 42

Threat detection & incident response

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High-performing secure connectivity.
Cordis selected Prisma SASE for its capacity to connect and secure its highly distributed workforce of 2,500 employees. With Prisma SASE, Cordis has end-to-end visibility over its network from branches to warehouses, offices and remote locations, all through a single solution. Hybrid workers gained secure remote access to company resources with Prisma Access, which has blocked 500,000 threats in just 30 days. The company also improved uptime and resiliency for manufacturing facilities with Prisma SD-WAN.
Modernizing threat detection and incident response.
Cordis adopted Cortex XDR to improve threat prevention across its endpoint footprint and enable rapid detection and response to potential attacks. Unit 42 Managed Detection and Response (MDR) gave the Cordis security team peace of mind with around-the-clock Cortex XDR operations. As it brought Cortex on board, the company’s legacy SIEM flagged an exploit on its environment. Its CISO activated its Unit 42 Retainer to get help responding to the potential exploit. In less than 24 hours, the Unit 42 Incident Response team identified the problem—not a breach but a vulnerability scanner that triggered an alert while searching for vulnerabilities. Cordis appreciated not just the speed of the response, but also the thoroughness of Unit 42’s investigation and reporting.
Securing a growing multicloud estate.
Cordis added Prisma Cloud to unify security across a fast-growing multicloud environment. With the solution, Cordis gained continuous visibility for all cloud assets and a single security control point to simplify management. Automation allowed the company to improve its cloud security posture through continuous monitoring and remediation of common misconfigurations.

Unified platform backed by strong partnership.

As a medical device company, Cordis knew it needed a strong partner to provide best-in-class security that keeps its business safe while enabling its teams to continue to innovate on the next generation of medical solutions. By selecting the Palo Alto Network unified security platform, Cordis IT and security teams gained comprehensive visibility and the ability to more consistently enforce security across the entire organization.

The integrated value of the platform is also paying dividends for Cordis, which will see savings of over 40 percent over three years across its full security stack. With Palo Alto Networks, Cordis feels ready to support the next wave of growth and innovation at the company with a scalable–and modern–security framework.