Case Study

GTMaritime

What we did for GTMaritime

Wingman Email Security

Industry: Communications

Published: 24/04/2025

Project Overview

GTMaritime is a maritime communications specialist with over 25 years of industry experience. In 2022, they partnered with SEP2 to enhance email security, addressing growing cyber security challenges. Together, they implemented a tailored solution to ensure uninterrupted and secure communication for their fleet. This case study explores the challenges GTMaritime faced, the solution SEP2 provided, and the results of this partnership.

GTMaritime specialises in secure and reliable email services for deep-sea merchant fleets, including container ships, cargo ships, and tankers. Over the last three years, they’ve doubled their vessel count and now process over 1.1 million email messages daily, which shows not only the growth of the fleet, but the increasing data demands of the industry.

The Challenge

Rising renewal costs
Zero-day malware threats
Inadequate support
Need for scalable security solutions

The Solution

Cost-effective email security
Advanced malware protection
Hands-on support and gateway rebuild
Scalable security foundation

The Challenge

After their incumbent solution was acquired by another company, driving their renewal costs up, GTMaritime were left unexpectedly searching for a replacement. Given the prevalence of zero-day malware and its increase, and the critical need for robust email security, they needed a provider who could address their unique needs. Existing email security solutions designed for Office 365 did not align with GTMaritime’s infrastructure.

Jamie Jones, Operations Director and CTO, explained, “Email gateways have been there for a very long time, doing spam and traditional antivirus checking, but the number of zero-day malware incidents coming through was problematic. It was very important to us to have something reliable.”

While exploring alternatives, GTMaritime chose Check Point due to its ability to integrate seamlessly into their operations. However, the initial service provider they partnered with failed to deliver the level of support required. This led GTMaritime to seek a new partner who could offer tailored expertise and high-quality service.

The Solution

During initial discussions, SEP2 took the time to understand GTMaritime’s specific needs and operational constraints. The team provided valuable insights and guidance, giving them confidence in the ability for SEP2 to deliver the required level of service and expertise. Ultimately, this mutual understanding laid the foundation for a successful partnership.

The onboarding process with GTMaritime was collaborative and efficient. SEP2 rebuilt their gateways from the ground up, ensuring a robust and stable foundation for their email security operations. Mike Goodwin, Director/Technical Presales at SEP2, worked closely with GTMaritime’s infrastructure team to establish a clear baseline and address existing challenges. This methodical approach allowed SEP2 to align their solutions precisely with the customer’s needs.

Jamie appreciated the hands-on support: “SEP2 helped us rebuild our gateways from the ground up. This ensured everyone understood the baseline we were starting from. It was a straightforward process, even with some of the complexity involved.”

Jamie highlighted, “The SEP2 team’s ability to translate what Check Point is asking us to do into actionable steps is invaluable. It’s not just expertise – it’s the way they retain knowledge about our specific setup and avoid irrelevant recommendations.”

GTMaritime particularly values the security of knowing that, in times of crisis, SEP2’s experts are just a call away.

Looking to the future

As GTMaritime continues to grow, their need for robust and scalable email security solutions will only increase. With SEP2 as their trusted partner, they are well-equipped to navigate future challenges and explore new opportunities in the maritime communications sector. Jamie emphasised, “We’re a mission-critical service provider to the industry, and having SEP2 supporting us is vital. It’s refreshing to have open and honest conversations about what works best for us.”

Testimonials

Hear From Those We Protect

You’re vendor agnostic, which is key for growth, and your team are providing really good insights in terms of the alerts raised. They also provide meaningful context behind them, which is great for us as an organisation,”

When we hit the limits of our knowledge, it’s having SEP2 there to say, ‘Try these things first.’ That expertise on hand is really important to us.

To have people like that around our account that we can pick the phone up to and ask questions was refreshing. Ultimately, we trusted SEP2 and we trust you with our cyber security.

Often the term used is ‘you can’t see the wood for the trees’. Most organisations implement security tooling tools and you’ve got different dashboards. The idea is you put them into a single place, and leverage expert resource such as the SEP2 SOC that actually understands that data and work with it on a daily basis. They can assess it case-by-case and escalate it back to us at Funding Circle only when necessary. And that whole process has been really, really smooth.

They are phenomenal: both personable and very knowledgeable. Our main contact is like a fountain of knowledge. If you ask him a question, he always comes back with ten answers – all the shades of grey, not just a ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ To me that shows the level of passion he has, and that he really wants to do things properly.

The original group of people who founded SEP2 were very deep in their knowledge of this type of technology, which can be complicated. It’s become the whole field of firewalls, intrusion prevention, antivirus, ransomware, etc. Cyber security as a whole has really ballooned, and there’s lots of dimensions to it, but you’ve managed to keep up.

During the evaluation process it was clear to me that SEP2 were the strongest candidate from a technical standpoint. During our first meeting, their ability to give immediate solutions to ongoing issues we were experiencing at the time was a breath of fresh air.

SEP2 are knowledgeable, motivated and switched on; they take ownership and they have a drive for resolution. They know their stuff! They are not merely a firewall partner, they are a cyber security partner. They take a strategic approach. They are approachable and offer additional value outside of their support contract. Working with SEP2 means we are no longer fire-fighting; rather we can now take a step back and proactively get things sorted. SEP2 say they are tech driven and people powered, and that’s exactly what they are! It all comes down to the people you are dealing with.

They live and breathe the technology. It comes from the top, however, everyone is an expert within SEP2, from sales through to the service desk. We don’t want to wait to be told what more we can get from vendors’ products. SEP2 are great in pro-actively helping us achieve value-add solutions. They aren’t about chasing revenues, they are about providing best possible value.