Ministry of Justice boosts cyber security with Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks is collaborating with the UK's Ministry of Justice to enhance the security and resilience of the ministry's digital services.

The partnership is focused on supporting the Digital Infrastructure and Security Operations team at Justice Digital, a department within the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). Justice Digital provides digital and technology services for over 96,000 users, covering internal staff and external partners, and supports operations across 1,200 sites including courts, prisons, probation services, attendance centres and a range of arms length bodies.

Following the implementation of Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE and Cortex XSIAM, the MoJ has observed a significant improvement in the automation of security incident management, with a 400% increase in automatically resolved security incidents per day. In addition, the deployment of dedicated internet access circuits for wide-area network (WAN) connectivity using software-defined WAN (SD-WAN) technologies has resulted in an average fivefold increase in bandwidth across connected sites.

Security priorities

Nava Ramanan, Deputy Director Digital Infrastructure and Security Operations at the Ministry of Justice, said:

Given the critical nature of the MoJ's work, security is a big focus. We are prioritising fundamental principles like cloud-first, secure-by-design, and a zero trust security model. This ensures that our infrastructure remains secure and resilient, but also aligned with the latest technological advancements including AI related innovation.

The collaboration builds upon an existing relationship, with the MoJ having used Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls for several years. The expansion of this collaboration saw the MoJ select Prisma SASE as part of a strategic modernisation of their network security infrastructure. The project involved unifying SD-WAN and Security Services Edge (SSE) into a single cloud-delivered solution, providing resilience, advanced AI-driven security, increased visibility and control for more than 800 live services and 130,000 devices spread across 13 organisations within the MoJ's remit.

Security operations transformation

A core part of the transformation has been the revamp of the MoJ's Security Operations Centre (SOC). The SOC is now equipped to proactively monitor, detect, analyse and respond to cybersecurity threats and incidents in real time. Central to this effort is the deployment of Palo Alto Networks' Cortex XSIAM, a platform harnessing AI capabilities for Security Information and Event Management (SIEM), Attack Surface Management (ASM), and real-time risk identification.

Helmut Reisinger, CEO of EMEA at Palo Alto Networks, explained the nature and outcomes of the collaboration, stating:

Before we started working with the MoJ, they needed to strengthen their security posture and resilience to combat the sophisticated cyber threats that it was facing. To achieve this, we worked with the MoJ's team to build an effective SOC with embedded threat intelligence and proactive security monitoring across all of the ministry's critical services. This has achieved improvements across the metrics that are priorities for the MoJ, including: reducing Mean Time to Detect (MTTD), Mean Time to Respond (MTTR) and operational risk. These results have been made possible thanks to our Customer Success and Professional Services teams that have collaborated closely with the MoJ to maximize the value delivered by the transformation program.

Future plans

The ministry is planning to further enhance its network connectivity and security posture by introducing secure connections between all courts, probation offices, prisons and head offices, with logical separation for data and applications. Prisma SASE will be used to enable secure, rapid integration of 34 third-party MoJ agencies and public bodies, enabling streamlined and robust connections while maintaining the required levels of security and compliance.

According to the MoJ, the transformation project aligns with the department's broader cloud-first and secure-by-design digital strategy, ensuring that operational risk is reduced while maintaining operational effectiveness and a high standard of service delivery. The integration of Prisma SASE and Cortex XSIAM provides greater visibility, proactive threat management, and operational efficiency for the MoJ's digital services across multiple public facing and internal platforms.