Rutland County Council banishes spyware with Barracuda Networks

“I would recommend (the Barracuda Web Filter) to all network managers. For us it paid for itself in three months…” Rick Stevens, Head of IT Operations, Rutland County Council

About Rutland County Council

Rutland County Council covers 150 sq miles and has 36,500 residents. The county is surrounded by Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire and the council offices are situated in Oakham, the county’s largest town.

To provide the most efficient service, Rutland County Council has a centrally managed IT network operating across four locations serving 450 users. A team of four dedicated professionals supports the IT infrastructure. The Council is constantly seeking to introduce improvements to maximise the network’s efficiency. Earlier this year it became apparent that system performance was being adversely aff ected. After investigating the reasons for the reduced performance, it was discovered that hidden spyware on the network was to blame.

Industry analysts estimate that over 90 percent of all computers connected to the Internet are infected with spyware. This leaves users and organisations vulnerable to a variety of serious risks, including intellectual property theft, productivity loss and privacy invasion at all levels.

Spyware hits resources

Network administrator and head of IT operations for the council, Rick Stevens, found his staff was spending increasing amounts of time removing spyware from staff computers. Spyware and other malware was slowing down PCs, although it was not yet affecting any specifi c applications. This meant longer working hours for the IT team as they had to remove spyware from the machines individually which takes up to one hour each time,
and places a strain on the department’s resources.

“We have a single four-megabit link to carry all the traffi c from our four sites to the Internet,” said Stevens. “Stopping the spyware at this central location, before it entered our network seemed the best way to fight the growing problem.”

A surprisingly easy solution

The council was advised by their IT supplier NTS, that a new product was available to stop spyware at the point of entry to the network.

“The Barracuda Spyware Firewall (now called the Barracuda Web Filter) ensures successful filtering of general Internet content to create a more productive environment,” said Stevens. “We are glad NTS, our professional services provider informed us of the benefi ts that this unit provides.”

Phil Dick from NTS (UK) Ltd has found customers are astonished by the Barracuda Web Filter’s ease of use. “Barracuda Networks’ customers are grateful, especially those businesses that don’t have a full time IT department,” said Dick.

The Barracuda Web Filter 310 was initially installed on a trial basis although Stevens said they ‘quickly saw the benefi ts and raised a purchase order to make it a permanent feature of our network.’

NTS provides customer training to highlight the most efficient use of Barracuda Networks’ products. Additional features on the Barracuda Web Filter give network administrators the ability to fi lter content. The filter recognises 58 categories of potentially high risk and productivity-inhibiting Web sites. Each of these is colour-coded and categorised in the Web interface as ‘typically blocked,’ ‘not typically blocked,’ and ‘neutral.’ Administrators can easily determine which categories are blocked by default and which they will allow users to access.

Ease of management through hourly updates

Barracuda Networks offers additional support services to all their customers including the Barracuda Energize Update service which provides hourly updates for the spyware rules, new virus defi nitions and revisions of the content filter database.

”The appliance receives periodic updates ensuring the fi ltering mechanism is always up-to-date, without needing my staff to manage the system,” continued Stevens. The comprehensive features allow the device to block spyware downloads, prevent viruses, stop access to spyware Web sites and fi lter Web content. In addition, it can identify spyware-infected desktops, alert the administrator and enable users to remove spyware from infected Windows computers with the Barracuda Spyware Removal Tool.

Since the solution was installed on the Rutland Council’s IT network, Stevens reports that they have successfully stopped all incidents of spyware.

“I would certainly recommend it to all network managers, for us it paid for itself in three months,” he added.

About the Barracuda Web Filter

The Barracuda Web Filter combines preventative, reactive and proactive measures to form a complete content filtering and anti-spyware solution for businesses of all sizes.

The Barracuda Web Filter is designed to enforce acceptable Internet usage policies by blocking access to objectionable content and unauthorized Internet applications. At the same time, the Barracuda Web Filter’s award-winning feature set enables the Barracuda Web Filter to block spyware downloads, prevent viruses, and stop access to spyware Web sites.

Unlike the widely available desktop software solutions, the Barracuda Web Filter is easily installed and does not require the additional time, money or resources necessary for downloading and maintaining software on each individual PC. Hourly Energize Updates are made automatically by Barracuda Central so that the Barracuda Web Filter can block the ever-changing virus and spyware variants, as well as maintain the most up-to-date database of the latest productivity-inhibiting Web sites.