Nishat Emporium: Enhancing Cybersecurity with Sangfor Athena Foundation

About Nishat Emporium

Nishat Emporium is a large-scale, mixed-use complex owned by the Nishat Group and developed by Nishat Hotels and Properties Limited. Launched in June 2016 and located in Johar Town, Lahore (Pakistan), it features a massive shopping mall with over 300 international and local brands, the Nishat Hotel, a large food court, a multi-screen cinema, and an indoor amusement park. The project was initiated in 2013 and cost approximately $238 million USD, with a primary goal of creating a premier shopping, dining, and entertainment destination in Lahore.

As part of its ongoing digital transformation strategy, Nishat Emporium has embraced Sangfor's cloud and cybersecurity solutions to enhance performance, resilience, and protection across its IT infrastructure. By adopting Sangfor HCI for its data center and Athena NGFW, EPP, and SWG solutions for network and endpoint security, Nishat Emporium has built an integrated, secure IT infrastructure designed for growth and resilience.

Emporium Night, Image Source: Nishat Emporium

Cybersecurity Challenges

• Outdated network security protection: Previously, Nishat Emporium was using Cisco ASA as their perimeter firewall. After the device reached its End of Life (EOL) and End of Support (EOS), they required a unified security solution that could not only defend against the latest threats but also provide centralized visibility across the network.
• Limited endpoint visibility: There was no enterprise endpoint security solution in place, which led to insufficient monitoring of employee device behavior and a lack of centralized control. This increased the potential for insider threats and malware infections. The increasing threat of ransomware also posed a continuous risk.
• Bandwidth visibility and control: Nishat Emporium operates as a mini ISP, delivering internet services (both Committed Information Rate [CIR] and shared-bandwidth connections) to its tenants and internal business units. Initially, bandwidth allocation was managed through QoS configurations on Cisco routers, but there was no centralized reporting, GUI-based monitoring, or utilization analytics. All management was CLI-based, limiting visibility and making SLA enforcement and capacity planning difficult.
• Complex access management: Nishat Emporium serves multiple user groups, including hotel guests, staff, mall visitors, and retail tenants, each requiring segregated and controlled network access. Managing internet services and SLAs across these diverse user segments proved challenging, especially for hotel guest connectivity, which is a critical component of their business operations.

Sangfor Solution

To address these challenges, Nishat Emporium implemented Sangfor's Athena Foundation solutions to establish a comprehensive, layered security framework.

• Sangfor Athena NGFW (Next-Generation Firewall): Nishat Emporium replaced its legacy Cisco ASA solution with Sangfor Athena NGFW, leveraging AI-driven perimeter protection and intrusion prevention.
• Sangfor Athena EPP (Endpoint Protection Platform): Delivers enterprise-grade endpoint security with EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) capabilities, centralized visibility, and dedicated ransomware protection.
• Sangfor Athena SWG (Secure Web Gateway): Provides a comprehensive solution for bandwidth management and access security across Nishat Emporium's business units and users.

Benefits & Outcomes

With Sangfor's integrated cybersecurity solutions, Nishat Emporium achieved a significant enhancement in its overall security posture and network efficiency:

• Network Protection: Sangfor Athena NGFW delivers advanced perimeter protection through AI-driven malware inspection and real-time threat intelligence, ensuring comprehensive defense against both known and emerging threats. The integrated SOC-Lite module enhances visibility by providing intuitive insights into detected threats, enabling faster investigation and incident response.
• Endpoint Security: Sangfor Athena EPP provides centralized visibility and control over all endpoint devices via the Athena EPP Manager. Administrators can monitor endpoint security posture, including abnormal behavior, risky devices, and detected threats, and enforce consistent security policies across the enterprise from a single console.
• Ransomware Protection: Athena EPP includes dedicated ransomware defense features such as honeypot (bait) files, AI-powered ransomware detection engines, and automated file backup and recovery. These capabilities provide robust protection against ransomware attacks.
• Integration Synergy: The seamless integration between Athena NGFW and Athena EPP enables bi-directional threat intelligence sharing, improving detection accuracy and response efficiency. For example, identified threats can be mitigated across both the network and endpoints with a single click from the NGFW console.
• Bandwidth Management: Sangfor Athena SWG delivers granular bandwidth management, providing visibility into network usage by users and applications. With this enhanced visibility, Nishat Emporium can effectively manage and optimize bandwidth allocation across users and business units. Athena SWG's Dynamic Bandwidth Allocation feature further enhances efficiency by automatically adjusting bandwidth distribution based on real-time network demand, ensuring fair usage, minimizing congestion, and improving overall performance.
• User Access Management: Sangfor Athena SWG also supports multiple user authentication methods, including AD integration, captive portal, and 802.1X authentication, allowing Nishat Emporium to configure the most appropriate access controls for different user groups and business units. This flexibility enables the company to balance security enforcement with a seamless user experience.
• Local Support & Reliability: The local Sangfor Pakistan team provides responsive on-site assistance, backed by continuous OEM support and updates, ensuring long-term reliability, stability, and performance.

Conclusion

Through the deployment of Sangfor Athena Foundation solutions, including NGFW, EPP, and SWG, Nishat Emporium strengthened its security posture, improved visibility, and simplified control across its network and endpoints. The organization now benefits from integrated perimeter security, centralized endpoint monitoring, ransomware protection, and more effective bandwidth and access management — all supported by local Sangfor expertise to maintain reliable day-to-day operations.