Texaport assists Wardog Studios in securing AAA contract

The challenge

Wardog Studio’s CEO Jade came to Texaport with a clear ambition: to get their cyber security and on-premises security posture up to the stringent standards expected by their AAA clientele. In the games industry, an AAA title is one with a large developer team, big budget, and high production values - the equivalent to a blockbuster film - so achieving these standards was not ‘nice to have’. It would make the difference between being eligible to take on prestigious projects, and being forced to pass up high profile work.

There was a further challenge. The Wardog team were working out of the Edinburgh tech incubator, Codebase. But the startup environment was no longer fit for purpose, and they were preparing for a significant office move. It was essential that Wardog’s time sensitive and GPU intensive work could continue uninterrupted throughout the transition, in order to secure an ongoing contract with one AAA title in particular.

The solution

Cyber security

To meet the strict criteria of the prospective AAA client, Texaport developed and implemented a bespoke managed detection and response solution (MDR) for Wardog. This allows us to actively monitor the movement of company files, and it alerts our team instantly of any malicious attempts to extract Wardog’s data.

As part of this tailored MDR, we put a complete endpoint detection and response solution in place. This utilises an advanced threat detection system, staffed by a dedicated team of our cyber security specialists, to provide 24/7 proactive monitoring of all company devices for threats and suspicious activity. We also conducted high-level vulnerability assessments of Wardog’s endpoints, eradicating all known vulnerabilities.

We installed a next-generation firewall, as well a real-time threat analysis solution which would continually scan for evidence of a data breach. To complement this, we set up an intrusion prevention system to analyse, resolve, and flag any malicious activity detected in the network traffic.

On-Premises Security

We fitted Wardog’s entire premises with CCTV and put access controls in place which only permit authorised personnel to gain access. To comply with a specific request from a AAA client, we also established a ‘Secure Room’ within the new office space. The only door to this space is monitored 24/7 via CCTV and its access control logs are accessible to the client.

Ongoing Consultancy and Holistic Support

In addition to this suite of installations, Texaport are providing ongoing IT consultancy to Wardog Studios. We work closely with their team of designers and developers to ensure that their software solutions are appropriate to their workload, and are updated regularly.

We have also assisted Wardog in producing a full complement of IT policy documents. This policy refresh enabled Wardog to formalise their disaster recovery plan, generate a new IT access policy, and put a practical incident and threat response plan in place.

To further bolster their defences - and confidence - we took the whole Wardog team through their Cyber Essentials Certification, proving that they exceed the National Centre for Cyber Security’s baseline standards.

The result

As a direct result of Texport’s involvement, Jade and her team fulfilled their primary ambition: Wardog won the high-profile AAA client and have been working hard on their upcoming title. This contract not only guarantees Wardog’s success in the medium term, it also cements them as a force to be reckoned with on the global art development scene.

Their reputation for being talented, innovative hard surface designers, is now backed by an IT and cyber security profile to match. Future acclaimed clients won’t have to think twice before engaging Wardog’s services.

The office move was completed in just four days, and Wardog’s workforce were supported seamlessly across the transition. They experienced no downtime at all and were able to continue working undisrupted, giving their clients confidence in their capabilities.

Wardog value having a reliable and experienced partner in Texaport who they can trust to design custom security solutions for their unique needs, to manage their physical infrastructure through high-pressure events, and to provide dedicated support for the long term.

And we’re already in the planning stages for their next major IT venture, so watch this space.