As the oldest company in the UK, with a history spanning 1,100 years, The Royal Mint is the world’s leading export mint, supplying millions of coins and blanks to countries around the world, with its first priority being the minting and distribution of UK coins. With this legacy, the Royal Mint is continuously transforming for the 21^st century to ensure it delivers for the future. Security is a priority area for the business, with cyber security playing an increasingly large role in this.  

Over the past couple of decades, The Royal Mint has transformed from a traditional manufacturer to a modern, highly digital organization, viewing IT as a business enabler instead of merely a support function.

As IT is utilized more, the business remains mindful of the risk cyber-attacks pose. As a manufacturing company, The Royal Mint requires continuous availability of its production means. Employees must be able to accomplish their daily duties without disruption, and a safe and enjoyable experience for its customers is a priority. This means avoiding any form of cyber disruption. 

The Royal Mint employs cyber security solutions that meet its every challenge, with its security posture having to support its digital estate as it undergoes constant and rapid development. Protecting its extensive ecosystem of large OT assets and minimizing the ever-present threat of ransomware is essential. It requires tools that adapt not only to the changing threat landscapes, but also to business as it continues to evolve. 

 The Royal Mint discovered Darktrace while looking for a way to secure its OT network, previously undertaking manual discovery of OT assets by analyzing packet captures. This was both time intensive and subject to possible human error. The protection Darktrace offers extends beyond the business’ manufacturing sphere, also covering its IT system, as it moves more services to the cloud.  

Enabling machine-speed response

Across all areas of its digital estate, the business gets huge value from Darktrace RESPOND™ and once deployed, the AI started learning what constitutes the company’s “normal” activity. 

Now, RESPOND makes micro-decisions to shut down malicious activity within seconds. Over the years, the AI has intervened in several incidents that could have resulted in downtime and disruption. This is done automatically to improve efficiencies and provide a smooth experience for customers. 

Bringing Darktrace to our email environment

Since starting its partnership with Darktrace, The Royal Mint has also extended its deployment to cover its email system. The AI keeps up with the growing sophistication of email attacks and language profiling within emails, achieving a higher detection rate and flagging fewer false positives. 

Armed with information from its network, as well as user behavior across its SaaS platforms, Darktrace has an enhanced understanding of what’s normal, and therefore what’s highly suspicious, and likely to be a threat. The number of malicious emails getting through has drastically reduced as a result of this, with time saving benefits to the business. Capacity is better directed towards ensuring customers have a positive user experience, whether this is via visits to royalmint.com, telephone interactions with the customer services team, or any direct email communications.   

Deploying enduring security for our enduring company

Overall, the platform has been a huge time saver for both the security team and other employees. The AI makes good decisions and in other areas of the business, it has intercepted numerous solicitation and social engineering attempts.  

At the most basic level, Darktrace enables The Royal Mint to identify threats within its digital ecosystem in a timely manner and customers can rest assured that as the business continues to diversify, their security and customer experience – be that buying a commemorative coin or making a precious metals investment – is its first priority.