DZ BANK selects Vectra for network threat-detection and response solution

The Cognito platform, which automates threat detection and response against hidden attackers, utilises AI and always-learning threat behaviour models to mitigate cyberthreats that could otherwise have a wide-ranging impact on the institution’s operations. 

DZ BANK is the central credit institution for the more than 900 cooperative banks that serve small and medium-size businesses in Germany. It also offers retail, corporate and institutional banking services. DZ BANK is Germany’s second-largest bank by assets. 

The bank needed to detect advanced threats, whether from external attackers or insiders, faster and more efficiently to comply with the European Union General Data Protection Requirement (GDPR). But its security objective was complicated because many types of surveillance and electronic monitoring of employees and communications are prohibited in Germany. 

To detect hidden threats faster, DZ BANK chose the AI-driven Cognito cyberattack-detection and threat-hunting platform from Vectra. Cognito enables DZ BANK to detect threats in real time, automatically triage alerts and respond quickly to hidden attackers in data centre workloads and user and IoT devices.  

“With Cognito, I can focus on the highest-risk threats,” says Matthias Tauber, senior services manager for IT security at DZ BANK. “With other solutions, I have to filter to get rid of hundreds or thousands of false positives.”  

Cognito automatically triages alerts with threat and certainty scores that are displayed on the intuitive Vectra Threat Certainty Index. As a result, the DZ BANK security operations team instantly knows which host devices with attack indicators pose the biggest risk with the highest degree of confidence.  

Cognito enables DZ BANK to protect its assets in accordance with strict privacy laws. Because Cognito analyses enriched network metadata, relevant logs and cloud events – not payloads or communications content – DZ BANK automatically detects advanced threats in real time without prying.