“The main reason for seeking a solution such as CalCom stemmed from our need to strengthen our internal control environment through the continuous and accurate assurance of configurations across the servers that support our business operations.”
Steven Garcia, Gerente de Seguridad de la Información, Interbanco
The Challenge – Manual Hardening in a Regulated, Mixed-OS Environment
Interbanco is a financial group operating in Guatemala, with more than 1,400 employees and 250 servers running across Windows and Linux.
Prior to working with CalCom, hardening at Interbanco was managed manually, with templates deployed across servers under a basic framework. As part of the bank’s broader cybersecurity strategy, the security team wanted to align its configuration standards with CIS Benchmarks — the industry’s leading reference for hardening systems and devices — but doing so by hand across a mixed server estate left the team dependent on manual follow-through, with configuration accuracy resting on someone remembering to apply it correctly before a server reached production.
Key Challenges
- Strengthen internal controls through continuous, accurate configuration assurance
- Align hardening standards with the CIS Benchmark framework
- Replace manual, template-based hardening across a mixed Windows/Linux environment of 250 servers
- Reduce reliance on manual application of configurations before production deployment
- Support a broader, ongoing cybersecurity strategy in a regulated financial environment
The Solution – Evaluating and Selecting CalCom Hardening Suite (CHS)
As part of its evaluation, Interbanco reviewed solutions from Ivanti and Qualys before selecting CalCom. According to Steven Garcia, neither offered the same scope, functionality, and depth as CHS.
The proof of concept was straightforward: Interbanco deployed CHS across a selected group of servers, which allowed the team to validate the solution’s benefits before rolling it out further.
“The POC was very straightforward, allowing us to deploy the solution across a group of servers selected for the test. This enabled us to validate the benefits of acquiring the solution.”
Steven Garcia, Gerente de Seguridad de la Información, Interbanco
The Result – Automated Assurance and Audit-Ready Evidence
Since implementing CHS, Interbanco’s security team has moved away from manually applying configurations, reducing both response times and the operational risk created by relying on a person to complete that step correctly before a server enters production.
“The most significant changes have been the automation capabilities, which have reduced response times and eliminated the reliance on someone manually applying configurations. This manual dependency could be detrimental if the person responsible were to forget to perform this action before dploying a server into production.”
Steven Garcia, Gerente de Seguridad de la Información, Interbanco
While Interbanco has not translated the impact into monetary terms, the team has seen the value reflected directly in its regulatory assessments, with consistently positive results in the evaluations conducted by supervisory bodies auditing its servers.
To date, Steven Garcia describes the experience as very positive overall, citing both the improved assurance across Interbanco’s servers and the support from CalCom’s account team.
Results at a Glance
- 250 servers hardened across Windows and Linux
- Manual configuration process replaced with continuous, automated assurance
- Reduced response times for applying configurations
- Consistently positive outcomes in supervisory audits since implementation
- Positive experience with CalCom’s account support team
Looking Ahead
Interbanco’s security team has also flagged an area for continued investment: deeper integration between CHS and other cybersecurity tooling, such as SIEM platforms, to correlate alerts on potential configuration deviations in real time.
Steven Garcia, Gerente de Seguridad de la Información, Interbanco
If your organization is managing hardening manually across a regulated, mixed-OS environment, CalCom Hardening Suite can help you move to continuous, audit-ready configuration assurance. Talk to our team.
