RiverSafe Detection Engineering Pod: Large Retailer Case Study

by Campbell Williams

The Challenge 

A leading global retailer was executing a critical security transformation in response to escalating retail-specific threats across their supply chain and digital estate. However, they faced a significant resource challenge. The security experts with deep institutional knowledge needed to build their detection engineering capability were the same people required to lead incident response and strategic initiatives. 

Without immediate, expert-level support, they risked: 

  • Detection blind spots during the transition period, leaving supply chain and subsidiary operations exposed 
  • Loss of momentum as signature development stalled 
  • Degraded security posture across their global brand at a time when threats were intensifying 
  • Failed detection signatures limiting their ability to run comprehensive, simultaneous threat monitoring 

The retailer needed a solution that could hit the ground running, not a team that required months of onboarding, but specialists who could step in immediately with the right skills already in place.

The Solution: RiverSafe Detection Engineering Pod 

Why an External Pod? 

The customer needed more than just additional headcount. They required a pre-formed team with the specific blend of skills that makes detection engineering effective. These skills are rare to find combined in individual hires and even harder to recruit quickly in a competitive market. 

Building this capability internally would have meant months of hiring, training, and team formation. Instead, RiverSafe deployed a specialist detection engineering pod that could operate autonomously from day one. 

Pod Composition and Specialist Skills 

The pod was resourced with consultants possessing a distinctive combination of capabilities: 

  • Offensive and Defensive Expertise

    Our engineers write rules with a deep understanding of how attacks play out from the adversary's perspective. This dual fluency means detections are built with real-world attack patterns in mind.

  • Detection-as-Code Maturity

    Deployed engineers experienced in building and deploying detections as code, fitting seamlessly into their automated workflows rather than disrupting established processes.

  • Cross-Functional Understanding

    Pod members brought experience working SOC-side as well as platform engineering, enabling them to bridge the gap between security operations and the technical infrastructure.

  • Self-Managing Delivery

    The pod operated with minimal supervision, managing its own workload while actively identifying gaps in processes and opportunities for improvement with other teams.

WHAT THE POD DELIVERED

  • Immediate Expert Replacement Pod members with extensive detection engineering experience stepped in on day one, preserving institutional knowledge and momentum while internal experts focused on strategic transformation. 
  • Hardened Detection Infrastructure Systematic validation and re-engineering of Defender signatures to eliminate common failure modes. 
  • CI/CD Pipeline Transformation Built automated detection workflows with MITRE ATT&CK mapping, metadata enrichment, and review cycles embedded into development. 
  • Enterprise-Wide Rollout Scaled proven detection standards across all subsidiary companies and supply chain touchpoints. 
  • Cloud Detection Expansion Developed new detection and response cases for IaaS, SaaS, and PaaS environments. 

The Impact 

Operational Improvements 

  • Efficiency

    Delivered a heat map focusing on scheduling of detection rules to drive efficiencies and minimise errors

  • Reduced False Positives

    Assessed and reduced false positive results across Defender and Splunk environments

  • Detection Signatures

    Retired and introduced detection signatures through a rigorous review and backlog pipeline

  • Enhanced Detection Rules

    Created a pipeline of test requirements to enhance detection rules, ensuring outcomes become part of the continuous review process

Strategic outcomes 

The retailer successfully executed their strategic transformation without security compromise.  

Most critically, the retailer achieved full-spectrum visibility across their entire global brand, all subsidiary companies now operate under a unified security posture, eliminating the blind spots that previously existed outside core operations. 

Through the CI/CD approach, the organisation gained sustainable detection capability that maintains its value over time, with automated MITRE mapping and review cycles ensuring their security investments don’t decay as threats evolve. 

Result 

Enhanced detection coverage, operational resilience during transformation, and enterprise-wide threat visibility that strengthens business continuity across the entire supply chain. 

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