Firewall and mail filtering solutions in a complex scientific institute system

The client

The MTA Research Centre for Natural Sciences (RCNS) was transferred to the Eötvös Loránd Research Network (ELKH) in September 2019, and in 2023 the Hungarian Research Network (HUN-REN) took the place of ELKH. The research centre is home to the Institute of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, the Institute of Molecular Life Sciences, the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, the Institute of Organic Chemistry, as well as the Brain Imaging Centre, the Centre for Structural Science and the Drug Innovation Centre.

The number of users of the RCNS IT infrastructure approaches 900, including students. To serve them, close to 1,200 machines are used, among them computers with large storage needs and high computing capacity, as well as machines that can still serve older research instruments.

The IT leader

Ákos Bencsura began handling IT tasks in 2000 at the RCNS’s legal predecessor, and has been the Head of IT of the RCNS since its foundation in 2012. Their team of four is responsible for the entire IT service of HUN-REN RCNS, including the technology help desk, equipment maintenance, the whole network and the servers. Because of their wide range of activities and great responsibility, they need reliable partners like Andrews, who take the weight of critical factors such as the firewall or spam filtering off their shoulders.

Network security for a new beginning

In 2013, at the time of the academic mergers, the RCNS was one of the first institutions to move into a new building. On the recommendation of their professional superior, they approached Andrews to create a reliable and professional firewall system in the new institute.

In Ákos Bencsura’s personal experience, the Andrews team is always ready to help them. They provide support in Linux and IT security matters as well, even though their cooperation originally covered the firewall and the spam filter. According to Ákos, working with Andrews is also important for them because of the capacity shortage of the RCNS IT team: this way they do not have to figure out everything themselves, as Andrews proposes concrete solutions to each problem that arises.

When they started working with Andrews in 2013, they did not yet ask for the MSA service, but over time the need arose for a mail filter that makes the significant volume of messages passing through them more secure. Besides installing and fine-tuning the content-based MSA mail filter, Andrews also supported the RCNS in configuring the mail server during the project.

Security without compromise

Ákos pointed out that from other areas he knows well the feeling of having to monitor the system constantly to check that everything is fine in the office. That is why he greatly appreciates the 24/7 on-call duty of Andrews: when there is a problem, they can react immediately.

In addition, there is regular communication between the two teams, in which Andrews outlines options for solving existing difficulties, whether it is about speeding up, simplifying or increasing security.

In IT security the sky is the limit, and the RCNS team knows this very well. That is exactly why there are continuous joint development projects, which they prioritise and think through together. Recently Andrews installed a WAF module on the ALF firewall cluster for the RCNS, which was a particularly important step in further strengthening the security of research tasks.