The Client

The New York-based Moving Firm is a dominant player in its relevant industry, creating a new business model that is changing the way that removals happen every day, in both residential and commercial markets.

Thanks to an innovative software platform, customers no longer need to ring many different companies to find the truck space and capacity they need. Moving Firm connects moving trucks that have excess capacity with people that have things to move – all across the United States. Instead of struggling to find trusted and reliable trucking or moving companies, customers can trust Moving Firm to provide a range of options, even at short notice.

The Challenge

Moving Firm had a very successful business model until interference from ‘bad actors’ almost brought their operations to a halt. The business was hit by malicious Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

These may have been initiated by rival companies, or simply by people who enjoy bringing huge financial losses to thriving businesses. Either way, a DDoS attack is a serious challenge to a company that relies on an online platform to operate. The perpetrators of the attack deliberately engineered a massive number of software ‘hits’ to the Moving Firm platform, causing it to buckle under the strain.

For any business, such an attack is a big problem. For a 100% online service, it is potentially a nightmare. Moving Firm needed urgent assistance from a Managed Services Provider with true strengths in security. Because of this, the company turned to ShazTEK for help.

Based in Fort Washington, ShazTEK has precisely the skills and expertise needed to tackle this kind of problem efficiently and reliably.

“This problem was a real threat to the viability of a business providing a truly valuable service,” says Ethical Hacker/Engineer (name undisclosed due to privacy) of ShazTEK. “Moving Firm has changed the way that the moving business works across the United States, and it seems that their success has attracted the attention of cybercriminals with malicious intentions.

“Resolving this crisis required a high level of expertise in online security matters, so fortunately ShazTEK was ideally positioned to help. As well as being an experienced Managed Services Provider, ShazTEK also specializes in security matters, so it was able to get on board with the problem quickly and professionally, delivering security enhancements that fixed the problem fast.”

The Solution

After analyzing the problem and discussing options for a solution, the ShazTEK team got to work as quickly as possible. The website was secured through the implementation of a Web Applications Firewall which blocked the Distributed Denial of Service attacks. The incoming threats were mitigated, neutralized and controlled.

However, that is only part of the story. When implementing this type of solution, it is essential that ‘false positives’ are minimized. That is, website visits from genuine customers must not be mistakenly identified as DDoS attacks. ShazTEK was able to leverage its considerable experience and expertise in managing cyber attacks to ensure that this did not happen.

Another benefit of the Web Applications Firewall is that it offers rich graphical reporting capabilities. This provides great visibility into what is happening across the platform, and makes it easy to understand the security status. As a result, any new attacks can be identified early, pinpointed and dealt with promptly.

The Results

As a result of this work, the Moving Firm platform is now running efficiently without disruption. The business is back on track, providing top-quality services to its customers across America. The management team is delighted with the results achieved, thanks to ShazTEK, and found the team easy to work with.

“Our project manager walked us through everything step-by-step,” says the owner of Moving Firm. “Our workflow is very smooth now, so I’m satisfied with the results achieved. Working with ShazTEK has been a big win for our business, and I expect us to work together for some time to come.