The Client – an overview
As a leading financial services group in East Africa, the organization has a strong footprint across both banking and insurance sectors. It offers a full range of personal, business, and alternative banking services across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda with its presence across these countries. Serving a large and growing customer base, the organization is committed to providing secure, efficient, and uninterrupted digital banking experiences.
Background and Key Challenges
Cybercrime accounts for more than 40% of all reported crime in Eastern Africa, where online scams, ransomware, and business email compromise are prevalent. As these threats grew in frequency and sophistication, this organization faced growing challenges in protecting sensitive financial data and ensuring uninterrupted operations. To stay ahead of evolving threats, the organization aimed to implement a centralized, automated, and scalable cybersecurity framework, which was capable of ensuring proactive threat detection, real-time incident response, and regulatory compliance across all its entities.
- Lack of Real-Time Visibility and Fraud Detection Capabilities
Limited real-time visibility across the systems delayed threat and fraud detection, increasing the risk of data breaches and financial losses. - Manual Mitigation Workflows
Critical mitigation actions such as card blocking, account freezing, and user disabling were performed manually with in-house tools, leading to delayed incident response. - Limited Automation Capabilities
The Security Operations Center (SOC) lacked the automation capabilities required to respond to threats swiftly and consistently across systems. - Integration Complexity
Integrating Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) and Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) with diverse tools (e.g., endpoint protection, firewalls, internal apps, and legacy systems) required custom Application Programming Interface (API) development due to the absence of Out-of-the-Box (OOTB) connectors. - Custom Application Dependencies
The bank’s internal applications for card blocking, account freezing, and user disabling were not designed for SOAR integration, necessitating deep reverse engineering and secure API development.
- Enable centralized, real-time monitoring of fraud activities across on-premises and cloud environments
- Automate threat detection and response using SIEM and SOAR
- Integrate internal banking applications through secure custom APIs
- Reduce Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Respond (MTTR)
- Conduct advanced threat hunting for proactive fraud prevention before they can impact operations
The Solution: Inspira Enterprise Approach
To address the challenges, the Client partnered with Inspira Enterprise, a global cybersecurity risk management service provider with deep experience in implementing large-scale cybersecurity deployment programs and expertise in delivering modern AI/ML-based SOC.
Partnering with Inspira Enterprise, the organization embarked on a transformation journey to modernize its Security Operations Center (SOC), strengthen fraud response, and automate threat detection and incident handling using an integrated SIEM and SOAR platform.
Inspira’s team of cybersecurity experts reviewed the organization’s existing security architecture and network across the four locations and derived the Statement of Work (SOW), Platform Qualification (PQ), and Technical Qualification (TQ) for the successful rollout of the projects. A scalable, secure, and resilient SOC architecture was built on the SIEM Platform, ensuring 24/7×365 fraud visibility, detection, and response capabilities across all locations.
Solution Highlights:
- Consolidated logs, events, and telemetry data from both cloud and on-premises environments into a centralized SIEM platform.
- Enabled proactive threat hunting and fraud detection through advanced correlation rules.
- Provided contextual visibility for faster incident triage and risk prioritization.
- Seamlessly integrated SIEM and SOAR platforms with internal banking applications using custom Python-based API connectors.
- Developed customized playbooks to automate key response actions such as:
Card blocking in the event of suspicious transactions.
User disabling based on anomalous login behavior.
Account freezing when a potential compromise is detected.
Suppose a user initiates multiple card transactions, followed by a successful transaction from an unfamiliar region, the SOAR playbook automatically triggers a series of actions. These include blocking the card, disabling the user account, and notifying the SOC team and relevant stakeholders in real-time.
| Use Case | Automated Action | Impact |
| Suspicious Card Transactions | Card blocking via internal app through API integration and automated playbook | Enabled real-time prevention of fraudulent card activity |
| Anomalous User Behavior | Automatic user disablement and SOC alert notification | Prevented unauthorized access and minimized account misuse |
| Potential Account Compromise | Account freezing and initiation of the investigation workflow | Reduced risk of data breaches and fraudulent transactions |
Outcomes and Benefits
The engagement between the pharmaceutical organization and Inspira Enterprise delivered measurable improvements in visibility, resilience, compliance, and operational efficiency.
Over 70% Reduction in MTTR for Fraud Incidents
Automation accelerated fraud detection, response, and containment, reducing MTTR and mitigating risks in real time.
Centralized SOC Operations
The unified SOC framework provided end-to-end visibility with standardized SOAR playbooks, ensuring consistent fraud incident response and streamlining case management across the four countries.
Significantly Improved Incident Response
Fraud incidents were swiftly detected and mitigated without disrupting core banking services, significantly enhancing operational resilience.
Enhanced Compliance and Audit Readiness
Automated logging and end-to-end audit trails ensured thorough documentation of incidents, response actions, and analyst interventions, facilitating quicker, more accurate internal audits and regulatory compliance across all four countries.
Elimination of Manual Response Workflows
Critical incident response tasks, such as user disabling, account freezing, and card blocking, were fully automated through SOAR playbooks. This significantly reduced analyst fatigue and enabled the SOC team to focus on proactive threat hunting and complex investigations.
Improved Customer Trust and Service Continuity
Faster threat containment and minimal impact on customer-facing services reinforced the organization’s commitment to protecting customer data and financial assets, strengthening customer confidence in its digital infrastructure.
ROI Impact
- Automation lowered the cost per incident handled and deferred hiring needs for additional L1 analysts.
- Time saved meant more value-added work, reduced burnout, and improved job satisfaction.
- Avoidance of major incident costs, potentially saving the organization between USD100,000 to USD 1 million per breach, with proactive detection and response.
Customer Testimonial
Nelson Nasongo, Group Chief Information Security Officer, Financial Services Organization, said, “We deeply appreciate the outstanding cybersecurity services provided to our bank across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda by the Inspira team, leveraging the integrated SIEM and SOAR Platform. The newly established centralized visibility and threat monitoring capabilities have been instrumental in protecting our financial systems and customer data from potential attacks.” He further added, “Our current ability to detect and respond to threats in real time has provided us with the peace of mind that our assets are safe. The Inspira team has been attentive to our specific needs and unique challenges in each country and has contributed to making our cybersecurity infrastructure robust and reliable.”
