Shinsegae Internet Duty Free Enhances Security, Protects its Online Store from Bot Attacks with F5

As online retail continues to grow in Asia Pacific, retail operators are faced with security threats more sophisticated than ever before. Attacks and intrusions have become more advanced and are outpacing traditional perimeter-based security. The velocity and complexity of these threats makes keeping up with protective measures an ongoing challenge for the IT Team at Shinsegae Internet Duty Free.

Furthermore, valuable market data like pricing information, product inventory and descriptions, as well as images and other resources are vital to retailers in the competitive eCommerce space. Shinsegae Internet Duty Free needed to prevent bots from infiltrating its systems through abnormal routes to obtain this critical data. In addition to mitigating these attacks, the organization wanted to ensure it had strong security measures in place to protect the customer experience.

Prior to introducing F5’s security solution, Shinsegae Internet Duty Free IT team implemented blocking policies by bypassing traffic, and blacklisting to prevent external intrusion of bots. However, the team struggled to keep up with the advanced capabilities and agility of these attacks and recognized that new methods were needed to effectively counter such fast-evolving threats.

Chief Partner of Shinsegae Internet Duty Free, said, “Shinsegae Internet Duty Free gets a large volume of traffic from international and local shoppers daily through our application. And having to act with swift precision to mitigate threats before they happen became a tremendous challenge as we attempt to distinguish abnormal and legitimate traffic. Ultimately, our goal is to provide our customers with a first-rate shopping experience, complete with peace of mind.”

Shinsegae Internet Duty Free needed a partner that understood the significance of protecting data in the retail industry. After conducting extensive evaluation of multiple vendors and several months of internal testing, F5 emerged as the clear winner.

F5’s Advanced WAF combines machine learning, threat intelligence, and deep application expertise to detect and stop evolving application layer threats.

The solution’s proactive bot defense stops automated bot attacks by identifying and differentiating friendly bots from malicious ones.

This prevents sophisticated Layer 7 Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, web scraping, and brute-force attacks before they cause damage to Shinsegae Internet Duty Free’s site.

“With automated bot attacks on the rise, it is necessary to rethink existing strategies for keeping applications and data safe,” Chief Partner of Shinsegae Internet Duty Free said. “Unlike other solutions, F5’s security solution blocks bad bots before malicious code is inserted into web page coding, going beyond reactive security to proactively detect and mitigate bots that target the web application, which links to our customer data and IP.”

By shifting the focus to automating threat protection and employing more proactive security measures, Shinsegae Internet Duty Free realized significant benefits over traditional WAF approaches.

Enhanced protection of information and security against external attacks

With F5 Advanced WAF, Shinsegae Internet Duty Free is able to protect its proprietary market data, including vital pricing information, product images, inventory and descriptions, and other resources.

Within one week of the pilot phase, the solution successfully detected more than 37,000 malicious bot connections, representing almost 30 percent of Shinsegae Internet Duty Free’s total traffic. By leveraging behavioral DoS, the retailer can now analyze traffic behavior using automated machine learning and data analysis.

By consistently monitoring server health and load, the solution equips Shinsegae Internet Duty Free with the ability to accurately detect and mitigate malicious bot attacks before any damage is done to the website or the brand’s reputation.

Improved time and cost efficiencies with streamlined and automated threat detection

F5’s solution helped the business achieve greater time efficiency by simplifying the work of IT and security personnel. Employees can easily optimize their security systems by automating threat detection, investigation, and blocking processes. This allows them to concentrate on building and running a macro security strategy instead of a daily task-based routine. Now the security team can refocus their time and energy on identifying human-based threats while the business can focus on garnering data insights from legitimate customer traffic.

Increased customer satisfaction and improved user convenience

Having seamless access to convenient online services has become more and more vital as consumer expectation for online retail experiences grows.

F5’s Advanced WAF is easily deployed without application changes or installation of software on end-user devices. This is a striking contrast from competing solutions which require users to download security software on their devices. The seamless nature of the deployment by F5 translates to a secure and enjoyable online shopping experience that fosters increased brand loyalty and return visits.