muvi Cinemas deploys blockbuster cybersecurity with Palo Alto Networks

When Saudi Arabia announced it was lifting a 35-year ban on movie screening in 2018, few predicted the Kingdom’s fledgling film industry would make rapid strides. But muvi Cinemas was quick to capitalise on the reform, growing rapidly. In just three years, muvi became the country’s leading cinema brand by screen count and box office share, reaching 205 screens in 22 locations by 2021.

muvi offers a digital-first, immersive cinema experience – and the company’s cybersecurity echoes this strategy. The goal is to ensure an entertainment experience that’s entirely secure against known and unknown threats, with users, applications, and data protected everywhere.

At such a critical moment in their growth, muvi Cinemas couldn’t afford to be slowed down by an attack on their environment, so they decided to explore more resilient security solutions – which was where Palo Alto Networks came into the picture.

“We brought in Palo Alto Networks network response specialists when we needed their help, before we were even a customer,” says Anas Shehab, Chief Information Officer, muvi Cinemas. “They didn’t come to sell licences; they came to help us.” A trusted partnership evolved from this initial engagement, with muvi taking steps to swap out the existing security stack and standardise on the Palo Alto Networks portfolio.

Challenged to reimagine their security infrastructure, muvi identified the key requirements of the solution would be to:

• Support their cinema brand’s growth with modern, scalable, and unified security.
• Introduce complete, intuitive, and automated network security.
• Secure endpoints with multilayer threat protection.
• Protect mixed, multicloud environments with 360-degree visibility.

muvi cinemas are live on a complete, standardised Palo Alto Networks portfolio, spanning network, endpoint, and cloud security. Unified, automated, and simple, the portfolio intelligently defends the cinema brand against any threat. “The Palo Alto Networks portfolio gives us everything we need to combat cybercrime in one best-in-class, integrated stack,” says Anas.

Palo Alto Networks Cortex XDR kick-started the portfolio implementation, replacing the incumbent platform. Combining intelligent endpoint security with cross-data detection and response, it enables muvi to automatically block attempted attacks on the server estate. “Unlike before, we now have complete visibility into every type of known and unknown threat,” says Anas.

With Cortex XDR gathering data from any source, muvi has tied in a managed threat hunting service to pinpoint attacks involving any host, anywhere in their environment. “The Palo Alto Networks team evaluate the risk of any threat they identify and notify us if we need to take action,” says Anas.

Cortex XDR also integrates with Cortex Xpanse, giving muvi a complete, continuously updated inventory of their internet-facing assets. “It’s another layer of defence, which we use to discover and evaluate risks right across our cyberattack surface,” says Anas.

With a trusted relationship in place, muvi has also deployed ML-Powered Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) in each cinema, centralising control of all traffic in and out of the network. The Panorama management console provides a unified view of all ML-Powered NGFW activities – including the ability to see and deploy networkspanning policies – and an integrated suite of best-in-class Cloud-Delivered Security Services (CDSS) for consistent security across the entire network. These services include Advanced Threat Prevention, the industry’s only intrusion prevention system (IPS) that stops known and unknown threats; WildFire, the largest malware analysis engine that offers 180x faster signature delivery; and DNS Security, the most comprehensive solution to prevent the latest and most sophisticated DNS-layer threats.

“The integrated network security sees everything. Nothing gets through that shouldn’t. We have complete control over the network traffic in the cinemas,” Anas explains.

Prisma Cloud is a vital addition to the united portfolio – a unique Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) solution, which muvi uses for visibility and cloud security across their multicloud environment, which includes Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft Azure. “As our multicloud architecture grows, Prisma Cloud CSPM offers muvi visibility into the security and compliance posture of each cloud environment,” says Anas.

muvi has found many benefits in the Palo Alto Networks portfolio. The company:

• Supports cinema and screen growth: Despite pandemic-related delays, muvi now have 22 cinemas open, and dozens more openings planned in the next few years. Palo Alto Networks is instrumental in this growth, providing the trusted, scalable security to deliver a resilient, reliable, and rewarding screen experience. This, in turn, is driving more people to visit muvi Cinema complexes.
• Accelerates security response: Using the separate, legacy platforms, the mean time to repair (MTTR) was up to three days; now it is as short as two hours.
• Simplifies security: The portfolio automates muvi’s end-to-end security operations, from managing alerts to threat hunting, reducing the need for highly experienced security analysts and the time it takes to detect and respond to threats.
• Increases efficiency: muvi has saved hours equivalent to at least two full-time staff since Palo Alto Networks was deployed. The unified visibility, process automation, CSPM, reduced alert “noise,” and many other factors enable development and security teams to work faster and smarter on strategic IT tasks.
• Protects IoT assets: muvi has the flexibility to identify, segment, and secure previously unprotected assets – such as IP telephony, cinema projection systems, digital advertising signage, and other internet of things (IoT) devices – with IoT Security.
• Provides knowledge transfer: Palo Alto Networks is sharing their experience and know-how with the muvi team, ensuring professional, in-depth knowledge transfer – through, for example, the resident Palo Alto Networks engineer, managed security, and other services.

For more information, visit us online and discover how other customers are partnering with Palo Alto Networks to secure their own digital transformation.