Denver Broncos Case Study

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For the Denver Broncos, Defense is a Winning Strategy on the Cyber Front and on the Field

INDUSTRY Sports Teams

and Clubs

OVERVIEW The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver, Colorado. A member of the National Football League’s (NFL) American Football Conference West division, the team is owned by the Walton-Penner Family Ownership Group and makes its home at Empower Field at Mile High.

HEADQUARTERS Denver, Colorado

COMPANY SIZE 350

OUR SOLUTION

CHALLENGE With tens of thousands of people connecting to the Broncos’ wifi during games, concerts and other events, there is no shortage of opportunities for threat actors to compromise the organization’s network via external devices.

“The technology is first and foremost, but it’s really about the people and the relationship. That’s where the rubber meets the road for our team.” Russ Trainor, Senior Vice President of Information Technology

https://www.denverbroncos.com/ https://www.denverbroncos.com/ https://www.checkpoint.com/quantum/ https://www.checkpoint.com/harmony/ https://www.checkpoint.com/cloudguard/ http://www.checkpoint.com/

DENVER BRONCOS CASE STUDY 2

SOLUTION Trainor and his team implemented a unified platform approach based on several Check Point solutions. “We wanted to have a single pane of glass to protect our inside network as well as our perimeter and cloud applications,” said Newman. The team leverages Check Point Quantum Firewalls, Quantum Maestro Hyperscale Network Security, Harmony Endpoint and CloudGuard to prevent threats across the organization’s entire attack surface. “Check Point gives us a great way to consolidate that viewpoint, so we’re not jumping between different systems if an alert comes up,” he said.

Maestro acts as a rack layer managing the firewalls underneath, allowing them to be aggregated and deployed as different form factors — i.e., virtual, software or hardware firewalls. “My team really likes Maestro, because it gives us ease of use, flexibility, and more time in service for our gear,” said Trainor. With Harmony Endpoint and CloudGuard, the security team also has full visibility of the connected devices and cloud-based applications that help deliver a seamless fan experience and drive efficiency for the football team. “Honestly, it just works great, so it frees me up to focus on other areas of the stadium gameday production that we have to tackle,” said Newman. “Check Point makes my job easier.“

To support business and football operations as well as event and gameday production, Russ Trainor, Senior Vice President of Information Technology for the Denver Broncos, and Chris Newman, Senior IT Director, must ensure the organization’s IT infrastructure is secure and available at its two main sights — one of which, Empower Field at Mile High, is a 76 thousand-seat stadium.

From customer payment data processed on point-of-sale and e-commerce systems to player medical information and mission-critical intellectual property, a wealth of highly sensitive data traverses the Broncos’ network daily. “We push the most data during games and concerts, with anywhere from 10 to 50 terabytes of wifi data running through the firewalls,” said Trainor. Previously, he had to manually distribute fan, employee and partner traffic — a time- and resource-intensive process that can also be prone to human error, resulting in service interruptions. Unsatisfied with his firewall solutions, Trainor needed a scalable platform to secure the organization’s entire digital footprint.

“Honestly, it just works great, so it frees me up to focus on other areas of the stadium gameday production that we have to tackle. Check Point makes my job easier.“ Chris Newman, Senior IT Director

http://www.checkpoint.com

DENVER BRONCOS CASE STUDY 3

ABOUT CHECK POINT Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. is the trusted cybersecurity solutions provider for over 100,000 SMBs, corporate enterprises and governments globally. With an industry-leading catch rate for zero-day, ransomware and generation V cyberattacks, Infinity’s unified platform delivers unparalleled threat visibility, intelligence and prevention across enterprise environments — from remote users and cloud deployments to network perimeters and data centers. Together, our solutions work seamlessly to drive productivity, reduce costs and enable real-time security monitoring.

LEARN MORE

Worldwide Headquarters 5 Shlomo Kaplan Street, Tel Aviv 6789159, Israel | Tel: +972-3-753-4599

U.S. Headquarters 959 Skyway Road, Suite 300, San Carlos, CA 94070 | Tel: 1-800-429-4391

www.checkpoint.com

OUTCOME The Broncos’ security team now has a simple, effective solution to monitor organizational security posture. As a result, the team can provide secure connectivity to fans and employees accessing applications and other resources — on-premises or remotely. “In the past few years, we started using Check Point’s email protection and AppSec control software to protect our web-based applications that our scouts connect to, providing a solid solution for us in those areas,” said Newman. “It just works, and I don’t have to patch it, so we’re really impressed with it.”

From helping ensure PCI DSS and HIPAA compliance to enabling new operational efficiencies, Check Point has helped the Broncos fulfill numerous security and business requirements. Working alongside Trainor and his team to continually roll out new technology deployments, Check Point has proven to be a reliable, forward-looking partner for the Broncos. “We’ve participated in a couple of early access programs and done some upgrades with Check Point, and they’ve sent out developer engineers to provide support during some of the more cutting-edge updates,” said Trainor. “The technology is first and foremost, but it’s really about the people and the relationship. That’s where the rubber meets the road for our team.”

With Check Point, the Broncos organization can continually develop innovative ways to improve the fan experience and drive operational effciencies. Trainor and other business leaders across the Broncos organization are keeping a close eye on emerging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)- powered cybersecurity technologies. “There’s a bit of a wild west element in the market right now, but we’re taking the journey, looking for things that could be automated to make our jobs easier and create efficiencies,” said Trainor. His team has already incorporated AI into its security workflows by using Check Point solutions like Harmony. “I’ll lean on Check Point to help us in that regard,” he said.

December, 2023

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Denver Broncos Case Study

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