Gossamer Bio Elevates Its Security Operations and
Improves Team Performance by 122%

THE OUTCOMES

Innovative Biopharmaceutical Company Gossamer Bio Improves Security Operations Efficiency and Increases Attack Surface Coverage

With Gossamer Bio’s cloud-first technology strategy, the company has a critical need for an advanced security platform and provider to support and continuously deliver on its security program objectives. Gossamer Bio has implemented a sophisticated technology landscape, architected with a focus on a zero-trust model. Partnership with a security organization that could magnify the effectiveness of its lean security team and enable the company to effectively evolve security operations was of utmost importance. “It is not an efficient or effective use of our time to be continuously triaging a flood of noisy false positives or redundant security alerts,” said Lisel Newton, Senior Director of Information Security, Risk & Compliance. “We must be super-efficient in how we run our security operations, so we can focus on continuous strategic evolution of the program.”

In describing Gossamer’s security operations goals, Newton commented, “We sought a partner who is committed and dedicated to an ongoing evolution and growth of the Gossamer Bio program and understood our unique cloud-native tech landscape. We needed a partner with cloud expertise who holds a deep understanding of what it means to secure a cloud environment, and not only can partner with us in doing so, but who also can make strong recommendations to improve and uplift the program.”

Freeing the Security Operations Team to Focus on Strategic Initiatives with 90% Reduction in False-Positive Alerts

Before engaging with ReliaQuest, the Gossamer Bio security team was weighed down by alerts that prior security service providers churned out. Triaging extensive, redundant false positives reduced the tile available to deliver on key strategic security initiatives. Historical partnerships left little room for customization to the Gossamer cloud-native landscape, mandating a plug-and-play model with only certain provider-specified tools permitted. As Newton described, “Prior to partnering with ReliaQuest, we worked with a few service providers who implemented a very rinse-and-repeat model. That approach did not allow for any customization to Gossamer’s specific environment. We needed a partner with flexibility and willingness to not only adapt to our technology and expertly understand our tech stack and business model, but to make strategic recommendations for our evolution. That is what we found with ReliaQuest.”

ReliaQuest GreyMatter, a cloud-native security operations platform built on an Open XDR architecture, has enabled the Gossamer security team to “focus more on the strategy of security,” according to Newton. Rather than spending a disproportionate amount of time on manual tasks and basic investigation of every security alarm, they can now focus on initiatives such as furthering their zero-trust model across a global, remote workforce who require use of a variety of endpoints and identity models.

GreyMatter has also drastically reduced alert noise for the Gossamer Bio team. Newton commented, “The ReliaQuest team is quick to respond to any tuning requests, and the result reduces noise and provides me with detections configured to our unique business needs. They have tuned out more than 90% of false positives. I can trust that 99% of the time, the alerts I’m receiving are true situations requiring immediate attention. Not dealing with continuous noise allows us to focus more on strategic goals rather than sifting through false positives and duplicates.”

Their hard work and the partnership with ReliaQuest have paid off. According to metrics available in the GreyMatter Security Model Index, Gossamer Bio has improved its security team performance and ticket closure by 122% since becoming a ReliaQuest customer. This is due in part to the 77% reduction in noise thanks to the automated investigation capabilities of GreyMatter’s Intelligent Analysis.

Maintaining Security On the Go with GreyMatter Mobile App

Gossamer Bio was an early adopter of the GreyMatter Mobile App. The GreyMatter app has provided the Gossamer Bio team with the ability to receive notifications, analyze incidents, and take quick action to resolve issues from a mobile device. As Newton explained, “The GreyMatter Mobile App allows me the freedom and flexibility to be away from my laptop without the worry of missing alerts or having a delayed response on investigations. I can immediately review all critical information about the event and connect quickly with ReliaQuest through the app. This allows me to make faster decisions and take quick action on the go. This is a huge benefit for smaller teams like mine.”

Streamlining Security Operations’ Results with Improved Response Times

As a life sciences innovator developing valuable intellectual property and handling sensitive information, Gossamer Bio takes cybersecurity very seriously. Any disruption of operations can impact development and therapeutic treatment approval.

With external threat actors continually attempting to compromise valuable data, Newton knows the ability to quickly respond to threats is critical for her team. Before becoming a ReliaQuest customer, Gossamer Bio experienced multiple security operations vendors that generated alert noise. With her team having to triage extensive false positive alerts, the time to respond to incidents was delayed by independently performing all alert investigation across multiple cloud platforms, dashboards, and tools. Now, ReliaQuest and the GreyMatter platform have eliminated the alert problem. Contextual threat intelligence, and expert threat and alert investigation performed by ReliaQuest has helped the team drop MTTR by an astonishing 95%—from nearly three weeks to just under two days—despite an overall increase in alert volume.

The automations and playbooks inside GreyMatter enable the Gossamer team to investigate threats and quickly take action leveraging existing Gossamer platforms. As Newton observed, “We use a variety of tools in our security program, including LogRhythm, SentinelOne, and various portals within the Microsoft suite. With GreyMatter, my team saves the time historically spent pivoting between upwards of five+ consoles; we can see everything happening within one platform. This has enabled us to more quickly identify and respond to threats.”

Meeting Regulations and Optimizing Cyber Insurance

Gossamer Bio is a publicly traded company with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance obligations, along with healthcare-related compliance regulations. The company operates globally and thus also needs to consider GDPR requirements. The Gossamer team values the capability of the GreyMatter platform to help meet compliance obligations and provide necessary artifacts and reports to satisfy auditors, as required.

Gossamer recently renewed its cyber insurance coverage. After detailing the Gossamer security operations program to its cyber insurance broker, the firm was able to provide enhanced coverage at a reduced cost. As Newton described, “After responding to the cyber insurance broker’s detailed questionnaire and describing our security operations program, including ReliaQuest’s support with GreyMatter in place, we were able to obtain greater cyber insurance coverage with a reduced premium.”

Gaining Visibility and Insight to Better Manage Risk

Utilizing security program performance metrics from ReliaQuest allows Newton to consistently communicate security challenges, goals, and the current state of the program with the company’s executive team, cyber committee, and employees. With ReliaQuest’s detailed and automated mapping to the MITRE ATT&CK framework and ReliaQuest Risk Scenarios, Gossamer Bio has developed a stronger, more accurate sense of its coverage and ability to identify, detect and respond to the threat vectors facing its business. This has enabled the company to improve its security posture by 44%, according to the ReliaQuest Security Model Index.

In reflecting on the relationship, Newton provided, “ReliaQuest’s unique approach to security enables and allows for strategic flexibility. As our business changes and our security strategy evolves, ReliaQuest and GreyMatter are capable of and ready to support that strategy no matter what security tools we may decide to deploy or the cloud infrastructure we use. ReliaQuest and GreyMatter’s flexible approach allow and enable Gossamer Bio to design our security model as we see fit for our business, and they are prepared with the expertise to partner alongside.”