Case Study: Hamburg Port Authority achieves continuous, automated protection of its critical port IT infrastructure with XM Cyber

When one of Europe’s largest seaports needed help securing its vast IT infrastructure

The Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), which manages the Port of Hamburg’s extensive IT estate across 63 locations (including hundreds of routers, switches, servers and thousands of endpoints), faced sprawling security challenges: over 100 local administrators, unmanaged or ownerless applications, a flat network optimized for performance rather than security, and limited visibility into exposures. To identify and prioritize risks, HPA engaged XM Cyber and deployed its Attack Path Management platform.

XM Cyber ran continuous, risk-free attack path simulations in production and immediately uncovered issues such as unsecured developer databases, writable shared folders, missing patches, unsecured test machines, and critical domain-credential reuse that enabled easy lateral movement. Using XM Cyber’s findings, HPA reduced domain-admin exposure, prioritized and validated remediations on an ongoing basis (post-implementation in October 2019), and extended continuous automated protection across the port’s entire infrastructure.

Hamburg Port Authority

Jens Meier

Chief Executive Officer