Dominican Republic Boosts Cybersecurity Efforts with Microsoft Technologies

In a move to bolster its defenses against the rising tide of cyber threats, the Dominican Republic’s National Cybersecurity Center (Centro Nacional de Ciberseguridad, CNCS) has implemented a suite of Microsoft solutions. The CNCS, responsible for developing cybersecurity, strengthening digital user confidence, and protecting critical technological infrastructure, adopted Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Azure to monitor, analyze, and manage cyber incidents across the country.

Since 2018, the CNCS has been working to secure national cyberspace through the ongoing evaluation and updating of the National Cybersecurity Strategy, as well as the prevention, detection, and management of incidents affecting government information systems and critical national infrastructure. Facing increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, the CNCS recognized the need to streamline its data management systems and improve its threat analysis capabilities. The existing data structure was scattered, lacking the ability to establish trends or gain visibility into major threats.

Cybersecurity is a key component of the 2030 Digital Agenda. We cannot think of digital transformation without first having the protection and prevention mechanisms in the infrastructures.

–– José David Montilla, Vice Minister of Digital Agenda of the Ministry of the Presidency

Dynamics 365: A Foundation for Cybersecurity Management

To address these challenges, the CNCS explored Microsoft technologies, leading to the adoption of Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement on Azure as its primary ticketing and case management system.

The first thing we did was adopt Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement over Azure as a ticketing and case management system.

–– Carlos Leonardo, Director of the National Cyber Incident Response Team

This move allows for the integration of various unstructured data sources to automate the incident detection process.

We needed a tool that would allow us to process the information and analyze it to make value decisions.

–– Carlos Leonardo, Director of the National Cyber Incident Response Team

Further steps included implementing Azure Data Explorer for data collection, storage, and analysis, along with Azure Data Factory, a cloud solution for scalable data integration.

Strengthening Threat Detection with Microsoft Sentinel

The CNCS also integrated Microsoft Sentinel, a security information event management (SIEM) and security orchestration automated response (SOAR) solution. This addition provides intelligent analytics and threat intelligence across the enterprise.

The Azure Sentinel product was very useful in this regard, and since most organizations in the state have Microsoft 365, the integration was native. We always found a Microsoft component to help us.

–– Carlos Leonardo, Director of the National Cyber Incident Response Team

Today, Dynamics 365 serves as a central hub for CNCS management, handling case initiation, monitoring, analysis, investigation, and final resolution.

Enhanced Efficiency and Data Quality

The digitization efforts have yielded tangible benefits. The event correlation capabilities of Azure Sentinel have allowed the CNCS to quickly identify the relationships between indicators when multiple incidents have occurred. This in turn has expedited the process for identifying vulnerabilities.

Thanks to integrating Dynamics 365 with Data Lake, Data Factory, and Sentinel, today the process is four times faster than it was at the beginning.

–– Carlos Leonardo, Director of the National Cyber Incident Response Team

In addition to improved efficiency, the adoption of Microsoft solutions has increased productivity, data quality, and the overall agility of the CNCS. These systems have helped to eliminate the need for manual analysis and data work, allowing the center to concentrate on data analysis.

Having this capacity for consumption and data analysis not only allows organizations to benefit from CNCS services, but also supports the development of services aimed at the general citizen.

–– Juan Gabriel Gautreaux, Executive Director of the National Cybersecurity Center

A Secure Digital Future

The CNCS prepared for future growth by choosing an Azure-based infrastructure. Their next goal is to create a unified repository of threat information, including data and indicators of compromise. This will allow the government to proactively protect infrastructure.

Every day, the threats are greater, and the amount of data sources increases. Having the right technology enables faster information processing, proactiveness, and efficient protection of all organizations in the state.

–– Carlos Leonardo, Director of the National Cyber Incident Response Team