Case Study University of Basel

The University of Basel is one of Switzerland’s oldest and most prestigious universities. Established in 1460, it has a rich history of academic excellence and research innovation. The university is home to numerous faculties and departments, each fostering an environment of intellectual freedom and scientific exploration. This decentralized structure, while promoting academic freedom, presents significant challenges for the central IT department responsible for maintaining network security across the entire institution.

The situation before baseVISION: Organizational Complexity - The Hidden Challenge in Achieving Cybersecurity

The University of Basel is one of Switzerland’s oldest and most prestigious universities. Established in 1460, it has a rich history of academic excellence and research innovation. The university is home to numerous faculties and departments, each fostering an environment of intellectual freedom and scientific exploration. This decentralized structure, while promoting academic freedom, presents significant challenges for the central IT department responsible for maintaining network security across the entire institution.

The University of Basel faces several critical challenges in managing its IT infrastructure and ensuring robust cybersecurity:

  • Heterogeneous Networks: Due to the diverse needs and freedoms granted to scientific workers across different departments, the central IT team struggles to monitor and secure the entire network effectively. Each department operates with a degree of independence, resulting in varied and complex network configurations.
  • Organizational Complexity: The diversity within the university’s departments adds to the organizational complexity, making it difficult to implement standardized security measures.
  • Staff shortage: A Security Operations Center (SOC) team requires an adequate amount of resources, knowledge, and availability. Keeping up with the pace of innovation in cybersecurity, both in terms of attacks and product development, is challenging, especially for small security teams.
  • Limited Budget: The university’s IT budget is limited. This financial constraint restricts the resources available for IT and cybersecurity initiatives.

Despite these challenges, the University of Basel has successfully developed an IT strategy that has gained recognition at higher administrative levels, leading to increased impact and influence. Consequently, the university decided to become a pilot customer in the Switch Community Security Operations Center (SOC) initiative.

Our Solution: Managed Extended Detection and Response (MXDR)

The University of Basel has shown interest in the baseVISION MXDR services and initiated contact between baseVISION and Switch, whose mission is to maintain and promote a secure network and educational infrastructure for all Swiss universities and higher education institutions. In a partnership approach, we supported Switch in building the MXDR component based on the Microsoft Security Stack for the Community SOC. The Switch Community SOC offers a comprehensive solution for higher education customers within Switzerland, encompassing proactive hunting, daily incident handling, incident response, and forensics.

Our Solution: Managed Extended Detection and Response (MXDR)

The University of Basel has shown interest in the baseVISION MXDR services and initiated contact between baseVISION and Switch, whose mission is to maintain and promote a secure network and educational infrastructure for all Swiss universities and higher education institutions. In a partnership approach, we supported Switch in building the MXDR component based on the Microsoft Security Stack for the Community SOC. The Switch Community SOC offers a comprehensive solution for higher education customers within Switzerland, encompassing proactive hunting, daily incident handling, incident response, and forensics.

Simple collaboration​

The collaboration between baseVISION, Switch, and the University of Basel has created a robust security solution capable of protecting one of Switzerland’s largest universities. The resulting Switch Community SOC, which combines Switch’s education-focused intelligence, baseVISION’s MXDR service (with Microsoft expertise), and Microsoft’s advanced security solutions, has proven to be an ideal match. This partnership not only enhances the security posture of the University of Basel but also offers a scalable solution for other universities.

Simple collaboration​

The collaboration between baseVISION, Switch, and the University of Basel has created a robust security solution capable of protecting one of Switzerland’s largest universities. The resulting Switch Community SOC, which combines Switch’s education-focused intelligence, baseVISION’s MXDR service (with Microsoft expertise), and Microsoft’s advanced security solutions, has proven to be an ideal match. This partnership not only enhances the security posture of the University of Basel but also offers a scalable solution for other universities.

Key Components

  • Switch operates its own higher education-focused CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), providing access to incident management and forensic specialists for preparation and incident response.​
  • Switch offers a unique perspective, including threat intelligence dedicated to the education sector, as the operator of the research network in Switzerland.​
    They provide education-focused use cases and hunting based on specialized education knowledge.​
  • The Community SOC contract allows deep information exchange between Switch and baseVISION, which helps to improve incident handling and overall quality, focusing on the special requirements of education and research networks.
  • baseVISION handles regular incident management, leveraging the full power of Microsoft Security solutions including third party signals made available by the customers​
  • As a designated partner, baseVISION was nominated for its expertise and efficiency, providing better and more efficient incident handling solutions.
  • baseVISION assisted the University of Basel in implementing Microsoft Defender XDR and Microsoft Sentinel.​
  • These solutions offer advanced threat detection, response capabilities, and a comprehensive security framework as a starting point, allowing for the extension to third-party signals based on customer requests.​
  • Using Azure Lighthouse and other Microsoft technologies, it is possible to keep all customer data stored in the customer’s tenant, allowing seamless and efficient collaboration between all parties.

Who is Switch?

The SOC Community Solution helps the University Basel to overcome their staff and budget challenges by delegating the most time-consuming tasks to a highly specialized Security operations team at baseVISION and integrating Switch’s knowledge about research networks and intel to lower risks which results of the complex network infrastructure.

This case study highlights the success of the University of Basel’s IT strategy, demonstrating how strategic partnerships and advanced technologies can overcome the challenges of a decentralized and resource-constrained environment.

Who is Switch?

We ensure that Switzerland is optimally networked as a location for research and higher education. And have been doing so since the early days of the internet.

With broad expertise and many years of experience, our dedicated teams connect public and private institutions – securely and sustainably. As a leading driving force in various international bodies, we also ensure the seamless global integration of our university and research network.

Summary

The University of Basel faced significant cybersecurity challenges due to its decentralized structure, staff shortages, and limited budget. To address these issues, the university partnered with baseVISION and Switch to implement a Managed Extended Detection and Response (MXDR) solution. This collaboration led to the creation of a centralized Security Operations Center (SOC) and a Community SOC, utilizing advanced security technologies like Microsoft Defender XDR and Azure Sentinel. The solution provided real-time threat detection and automated response capabilities, significantly improving the university’s security posture and offering a scalable model for other institutions.

Key Benefits

  • Monitoring, analysis and first investigations by baseVISION SOC security analysts ​
  • Threat Intel Based Incident Enrichment ​
  • Education and research network focused threat intelligence by Switch​
  • Incident Automation Engine
  • baseVISION Standard Use Case Repository​
  • Azure Sentinel Backup and continuous Health Checks​
  • Fully leverage security capabilities in Microsoft 365 A
  • Data remains in your tenant and under your control​
  • Commitment to Switzerland

The University of Basel faced significant cybersecurity challenges due to its decentralized structure, staff shortages, and limited budget. To address these issues, the university partnered with baseVISION and Switch to implement a Managed Extended Detection and Response (MXDR) solution. This collaboration led to the creation of a centralized Security Operations Center (SOC) and a Community SOC, utilizing advanced security technologies like Microsoft Defender XDR and Azure Sentinel. The solution provided real-time threat detection and automated response capabilities, significantly improving the university’s security posture and offering a scalable model for other institutions.

Key Benefits

  • Monitoring, analysis and first investigations by baseVISION SOC security analysts ​
  • Threat Intel Based Incident Enrichment ​
  • Education and research network focused threat intelligence by Switch​
  • Incident Automation Engine
  • baseVISION Standard Use Case Repository​
  • Azure Sentinel Backup and continuous Health Checks​
  • Fully leverage security capabilities in Microsoft 365 A
  • Data remains in your tenant and under your control​
  • Commitment to Switzerland

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