Somerset County Council Chooses Internet Security Systems To Shield Against Internet Threats

Published 31st October 2006

ISS to help County Secure Internet in Libraries, Schools and Government Offices...

LONDON — October 30, 2006 – Internet Security Systems (ISS), Inc. today announced that it has signed Somerset County Council as a client to help protect its networks using ISS Proventia® Network Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and Proventia Management SiteProtector™ console. ISS was recently acquired by IBM and operates as a unit of IBM Global Technology Services.

Somerset County Council is one of a number of councils concerned with the legal ramifications of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing on its network, including copyright infringements, sharing of confidential information and downloading of illegal web content Additionally, the Council’s networking team was worried about protection against spyware access to the Internet. Furthermore, the networking team was also concerned about the increasing risks associated with P2P applications running on public and local government networks.

ISS Proventia Network IPS with Virtual Patch® technology provides a patching window designed to help Somerset Council’s IT security stay ahead of new Internet threats in a timely and cost efficient manner and pre-emptively protect the Council’s 7,000 corporate users. Along with spyware and P2P protection, the Council now benefits from increased network availability and enhanced staff productivity. ISS technology is also designed to protect instant messenger chats, chat attachments and online gaming activities against threats to the network.

“It is of paramount importance that we proactively address network security for our staff and the public, and with ISS’ pre-emptive security, we are confident that we are now doing this,” said Dave Littlewood, Principal Network Analyst at Somerset County Council. “ISS and its products have enabled us to attain a holistic view of what activities are taking place within our networks.”

Somerset County Council selected ISS after recognising that the increasing volume of public Internet service users, from schools, libraries and the Council office network, required a more sophisticated level of protection from Internet-based threats.

Delivering security content that is designed to protect vulnerabilities in networks and servers from attacks, ISS’ Virtual Patch technology helps to shield against vulnerabilities rather than blocking exploits. The benefit is that vulnerable systems are protected, in many cases before an exploit is even released. This approach gives the Council’s IT team a larger time window within which to test vendor security patches prior to implementing them, while retaining network protection continuity.

“Somerset County Council has shown a great understanding of IT security threats and of their desire to protect their employees and their citizens. Somerset County Council is certainly ’security savvy’ and it’s refreshing to see such organisations placing security at the top of their agenda,” commented Andrew Lawton, Director Northern Europe for Internet Security Systems, an IBM company. “We look forward to working with the team at Somerset and to helping build a Centre of Excellence for all other public sector authorities to follow.”