A leading auto-ancillary manufacturer in India, with an annual turnover of over ₹1,000 crore and 1,000 employees across multiple locations, faced growing challenges in protecting its intellectual property and sensitive business information.

The organization relied on applications such as Microsoft 365, GitHub, and SAP to manage engineering workflows, business operations, and collaboration. However, sensitive information including CAD drawings, product designs, software code, quality reports, customer records, and commercial files was distributed across endpoints, email, cloud applications, and collaboration platforms.

With fragmented security controls and limited visibility into how information moved across these channels, the organization needed a unified approach to prevent data leakage without disrupting everyday operations.

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Understanding the Business Challenge

The manufacturer handled large volumes of sensitive engineering and business information across multiple departments and locations. However, existing security controls could not provide consistent visibility or protection across all data movement channels.

Some of the key challenges included:

1. Leakage of Sensitive Designs

Product drawings and CAD designs were at risk of exposure through email attachments and unauthorized web uploads.

2. Uncontrolled Source Code Sharing

Employees could potentially share proprietary source code, software scripts, and commercial files through unauthorized channels.

3. Limited Endpoint Visibility

Data movement across employee devices lacked sufficient visibility and control, increasing the risk of accidental or intentional information leakage.

4. External Collaboration Risks

Email, shared links, Microsoft Teams, and other collaboration channels created additional pathways for sensitive information exposure.

5. Multiple Locations and User Behaviors

Different user activities across manufacturing plants and locations made it difficult to enforce consistent security policies.

6. Intellectual Property Protection

The organization needed to protect valuable intellectual property while ensuring employees could continue working productively across business applications.

Before Zaperon, security controls were fragmented across endpoints, email, web applications, and collaboration tools. This resulted in limited centralized visibility, inconsistent enforcement, and a higher risk of data exfiltration.

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How Zaperon Addressed the Challenge

Zaperon deployed its Identity-Centric Security Service Edge (SSE) platform to protect sensitive engineering and business data without disrupting users.

The deployment introduced a unified security framework combining Zero Trust Access, Endpoint Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Email DLP, Web Traffic Monitoring, and centralized visibility.

The implementation focused on five key areas:

1. Endpoint Data Protection

Implemented DLP policies to protect sensitive drawings, product designs, source code, customer information, and business files across employee endpoints.

2. Email Security

Strengthened protection for outbound emails and attachments within Microsoft 365 to reduce the risk of sensitive information being shared externally.

3. Web Traffic Monitoring

Established control over uploads to web applications and unauthorized destinations, helping prevent sensitive business information from leaving through unapproved channels.

4. Collaboration Security

Extended security coverage across collaboration platforms, including Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, to provide broader protection for everyday business communication.

5. Centralized Visibility and Audit Trails

Established centralized audit trails to monitor user activities, investigate security incidents, and support compliance reporting.

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Deployment Highlights

The implementation was designed to provide consistent security across users, applications, devices, and business locations.

Key deployment milestones included:

• 1,000 Users Onboarded: Secured employees across the organization's workforce.
• Multiple Locations Covered: Extended consistent security controls across manufacturing and business locations in India.
• Enterprise Application Integration: Integrated Microsoft 365, GitHub, and SAP into the security environment.
• Policy-Driven Protection: Enforced security controls based on file types and data movement channels.
• Unified Security Management: Provided IT and security teams with a single console for visibility, monitoring, and response.

The rollout followed four stages:

1. Discover: Mapped existing data flows and identified sensitive information movement across the organization.

2. Pilot: Validated security policies and controls before wider deployment.

3. Rollout: Extended protection across users, devices, applications, and locations.

4. Optimize: Refined security controls based on operational requirements and deployment observations.

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Business Outcomes

With Zaperon, the manufacturer moved from fragmented data protection to a unified security model that better aligned with how its teams actually worked.

The deployment delivered several key outcomes:

• 1,000 Users Secured: Extended consistent protection across the organization's workforce.
• Unified DLP Framework: Established a centralized approach to protecting sensitive data across multiple channels.
• Broader Security Coverage: Extended protection across email, endpoints, web traffic, and collaboration platforms.
• Improved IP Protection: Strengthened safeguards against accidental and intentional leakage of sensitive designs and drawings.
• Source Code Protection: Monitored source code and business-critical information across common data exfiltration channels.
• Controlled Data Sharing: Brought risky email sharing and web uploads under tighter security controls.
• Stronger Audit Readiness: Improved visibility through detailed activity logs and centralized audit trails.
• Simplified Security Operations: Replaced disconnected security controls with one integrated SSE platform.

The case study highlights how Zaperon helped the organization transition from isolated DLP controls to a unified data protection model aligned with its everyday business workflows.

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Protect Intellectual Property Without Slowing Operations

For manufacturing organizations, intellectual property is one of their most valuable business assets. Protecting engineering drawings, product designs, source code, and confidential commercial information requires visibility and control across every channel through which data moves.

Zaperon's Identity-Centric SSE platform brings together Zero Trust Access, Endpoint DLP, Email DLP, Web Traffic Monitoring, and unified visibility to help manufacturers safeguard sensitive information while maintaining business productivity.

With consistent, identity-aware security controls across users, devices, applications, and locations, organizations can protect their intellectual property without slowing down operations.