©2024 Akamai Technologies
Accelerating innovation in life science
Bio-Techne empowers researchers in life science and clinical diagnostics by providing high-quality reagents, instruments, custom manufacturing, and testing services. The share of revenue from ecommerce sites is growing by double digits annually, making downtime very costly. In the past, Bio-Techne’s IT team members sometimes worked through the night to counter cyberattacks. Now the company has an expert partner at its side, with Akamai Managed Security Service. Akamai’s Security Operations Command Center (SOCC) provides 24/7 monitoring, proactive alerts on threats, and guidance on remediation. Every two weeks, Bio-Techne meets with its Akamai account team to brainstorm ways to strengthen security and improve the customer experience. To date, that advice has led to effective bot blocking, a better customer experience, and higher search engine rankings.
Research breakthroughs can happen anytime — so Bio-Techne never closes
Today’s improved longevity and quality of life are due in large part to innovations in diagnostics, cell and gene therapies, and vaccines. Life science researchers need a variety of tools and reagents over the course of a study, and 15% of Bio-Techne’s revenues come from its ecommerce sites. “Our customers tend to order at the moment of need,” says Brian Fertig, Bio-Techne’s Director of Software Development. “To make sure that lifesaving research isn’t delayed for lack of the right tools, we need to protect our ecommerce sites from attacks that could take them down.”
New threat landscape demands new approach
Fertig shares responsibility for website security and performance with two colleagues: Chad Jungers, Senior Manager of Infrastructure and Operations, and Andrew Stobbe, Web Development Manager. Website security is complicated by Bio-Techne’s focus on acquisitions. More than a dozen companies have joined the fold since 2013, and the website security of each company varies greatly.
Bio-Techne began using Akamai’s web application firewall and content delivery network (CDN) before the three IT pros joined the company. It delivers the performance and security the global company needs. “Customers anywhere in the world get a quick response from our website,” Jungers says. “When we acquire a new company, our first step is to get their websites behind Akamai.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, life sciences companies, like many others, saw a rise in attacks from hackers looking to steal intellectual property. Responding to a growing volume of alerts and fine-tuning security rules took time away from the team’s other responsibilities. “I’d get a ding on my phone at 2:00 AM saying, ‘Site is not responding,’” Stobbe says. “We pulled some all-nighters trying to figure out what was happening and how to respond.”
Experts are now a call away
Those all-nighters are now a distant memory, thanks to the Akamai Managed Security Service. “The Akamai SOCC team contacts us at the earliest sign of a potential attack and advises us on how to block it,” says Jungers. Bio-Techne and Akamai meet regularly to tweak settings for security and performance. On a recent call, Akamai reviewed Bio-Techne’s firewall and Bot Manager rules. Having confirmed that new security rules weren’t blocking legitimate traffic, they gave Bio-Techne’s team the go-ahead to change certain “alert” settings to “deny.” With fewer alerts to investigate, the team has more time for its other work.
“With Akamai’s Managed Security Service, we don’t come to work in the morning after an attack with red eyes,” Fertig says. “Akamai is just as invested in keeping Bio-Techne secure as we are. We consider them an extension of our team.”
Proactive recommendations with big business value
When Bio-Techne saw an uptick in threat activity, the SOCC team recommended Akamai Bot Manager. “Bot Manager was effective right out of the box,” Jungers says. “During the proof of concept, whenever we saw a ramp up in bot traffic, Bot Manager would quickly take it right back down to nothing. Now that we’ve fine-tuned the settings, we rarely see any bot traffic make it past the firewall.”
Stobbe is pleased with the Akamai account team’s suggestion to use Akamai Image & Video Manager, which adjusts image size based on the customer’s device and connection speed. “With Image Manager, we’re seeing an average 69% reduction in image size,” Stobbe says. “Now pages load faster, which improves the customer experience and raises our search engine rankings.”
If penetration-testing partners test behind the firewall, they come back with tons of issues. But if they hit the same site through the Akamai firewall, it’s quiet.
Andrew Stobbe, Web Development Manager, Bio-Techne
Blocking attacks before they get to the website
Akamai’s web application firewall gives the team peace of mind. “Some acquired websites have security flaws that we don’t know about ahead of time,” Fertig says. “Our penetration tests show that Akamai blocks 99% of problems.” Stobbe adds, “If penetration-testing partners test behind the firewall, they come back with tons of issues. But if they hit the same site through the Akamai firewall, it’s quiet.” That protection also applies to never-before-seen zero-day threats. “When our chief information security officer alerts us about a new zero-day threat, we almost always find that Akamai is already blocking it,” Fertig says. That means the team can patch on its own schedule instead of rushing — or pulling an all-nighter.
When our chief information security officer alerts us about a new zero-day threat, we almost always find that Akamai is already blocking it.
Brian Fertig, Director of Software Development, Bio-Techne
“If I have a plumbing problem at home, I can watch some videos and try to fix it myself — but I don’t kid myself that I’m as knowledgeable as a professional,” says Fertig. “In the same way, our team could get more training on CDNs and threat protection, but we’ll never match Akamai’s level of expertise. With the Managed Security Service, we’re leveraging an industry leader’s knowledge to protect our websites, improve performance, and rank higher in search results. It’s good for the business, good for IT, and good for our customers.”
About Bio-Techne
Bio-Techne empowers researchers in Life Science and Clinical Diagnostics by providing high-quality reagents, instruments, custom manufacturing, and testing services. The company develops and manufactures award-winning tools that help researchers achieve reproducible and consistent results. Whether a customer is at the cutting edge of academic research, translating basic discoveries to therapeutic leads, or at a facility that requires the highest level of diagnostic testing, Bio-Techne’s innovative products and services provide the solutions needed to achieve success. www.biotechne.com
About Akamai
Akamai powers and protects life online. Leading companies worldwide choose Akamai to build, deliver, and secure their digital experiences — helping billions of people live, work, and play every day. With the world’s most distributed compute platform — from cloud to edge — we make it easy for customers to develop and run applications, while we keep experiences closer to users and threats farther away. Learn more about Akamai’s security, compute, and delivery solutions at akamai.com and akamai.com/blog, or follow Akamai Technologies on Twitter and LinkedIn.