News

Wendy’s franchisee deploys SonicWALL network security

August 2, 2011

Wendy's franchisee DavCo Restaurants Inc. has deployed SonicWALL Inc.'s Network Security Appliance (NSA) 4500 firewalls, a Secure Remote Access (SRA) 4200 appliance, 154 SonicWALL TZ 210 firewalls and a SonicWALL E-Class Universal Management Appliance (UMA) EM5000.

With the deployment, DavCo will provide network security and secure remote access for its approximately 4,500 employees. Based in Crofton, Md., DavCo Restaurants is one of the largest Wendy's franchisees in North America. The company operates 154 restaurants in the Mid-Atlantic region, including Baltimore, Washington D.C. and Northern Virginia.

DavCo was looking to speed up its daily point-of-sale (POS) downloads to corporate headquarters for its locations. The previous network infrastructure consisted of a private network with a back-office PC at each Wendy's restaurant. An Internet Service Provider (ISP) provided each location with dedicated access to specific white-listed websites only.

To become PCI DSS compliant and securely transmit credit card transactions over the Internet, DavCo needed to deploy firewalls at all restaurant sites to ensure they were adequately segmenting and securing credit card data.

DavCo paired NSA 4500 firewalls at its corporate headquarters with a SRA 4200 appliance and 154 TZ 210 firewalls in all of its Wendy's locations. To centrally monitor, manage and report on all of the SonicWALL appliances, DavCo also deployed an E-Class UMA EM5000 appliance.

"The process of becoming PCI compliant was incredibly challenging and complex," said Stacy Duncan, senior director of IT, DavCo Restaurants. "We needed to ensure good network segmentation and find a solution that could provide seamless, secure and easy-to-manage network security and remote access across the entire distributed network."

Duncan said with the SSL VPN, DavCo was able to implement two-factor authentication using a one-time password sent via text message, resulting in another wall of security for PCI compliance.

DavCo's technology partner, RedZone Technologies LLC, a specialized IT solutions and security company, was instrumental in the evaluation and installation processes.

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