KMB Boosts Application Security for Commuters with F5

The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB), the largest public bus company in Hong Kong, wanted to enhance the security of its popular web and mobile applications, improve application deployment, and mitigate against attacks in an ever-evolving threat landscape. By partnering with F5, KMB implemented an integrated, proactive approach that allowed its apps to be deployed securely.

Business Challenges

Since 1933, the Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB) has operated franchised bus services throughout Hong Kong. It is the market’s largest road passenger transport operator by fleet size and coverage of the number of bus routes. To maintain its position as a global transportation leader, KMB’s top priority is developing innovative technological solutions that provide commuters with useful information to help plan their journey, including estimated bus arrival times, bus stop navigation and up-to-date traffic and route updates through its website and mobile applications.

In addition to improving the customer experience, KMB wanted to focus on strengthening its security posture. When the transport operator identified the potential risk of theon-premises backend database server, KMB required a solution that could secure multiple environments and defend against app vulnerabilities and threats, all without sacrificing app performance.

With F5’s Advanced WAF (web application firewall), we have been able to more efficiently manage heavy traffic, while simultaneously strengthening security.

Benefits

KMB’s deployment of F5 solutions enabled the company to provide commuters with trusted, secure, and reliable access to the transport operator’s suite of services. 

Simplified deployment and seamless integration across diverse environments

F5’s Advanced WAF was able to provide consistent availability, boost performance, and safeguard critical data for KMB’s apps.

Secure app delivery and safeguarding of critical data

KMB’s website holds proprietary information that can be used to attract advertisers – but is also valuable to potential attackers. It was imperative for KMB that the correct systems were deployed to protect the organization’s database of sensitive information. With F5’s Advanced WAF solution, KMB is able to strengthen the security posture of its applications dynamically. The solution employs proactive and automated countermeasures to detect and mitigate evolving app-layer threats.

By integrating behavioral analysis and dynamic code injections, among numerous other mechanisms, Advanced WAF enabled KMB to accurately spot and isolate anomalous traffic patterns, and better assess the threat associated with any given client session—without IT intervention—thus freeing up the security team’s time to focus on more strategic tasks. 

Enhanced user experience

F5’s Advanced WAF solution effectively optimized the speed and reliability of KMB’s apps at both network and application layers. This provided KMB with an exceptional level of control and customization for applications typically seen only in private data centers. KMB is also able to rapidly respond to any threats targeting applications.