Industry Credit Union
When Ms. Tamara Hudson, Network Manager at Community Resources Credit Union (CRCU) sought to meet FDIC compliance requirements by engaging a firm to install and manage an Intrusion Detection System for the Credit Union’s 100 user network, the providers she contacted quoted her prices ranging from $20,000 to $25,000 per year.
With an IT staff member already devoted full time to supporting, properly configuring and keeping up-to-date their firewall, gateway, server and desktop anti-virus, antispam and VPN solutions, CRCU’s security infrastructure had become cumbersome, not to mention expensive.
As luck would have it, while she was still considering her decision, the CRCU played host to a Credit Union Information Security Professional Association (CUISPA) meeting at which NBUSA, a Network Box distributor, made a presentation. Ms. Hudson was intrigued. Here was a more complete solution that included a full managed Intrusion Prevention System for a fraction of the cost of the dedicated managed IDS services she had talked to.
Slightly skeptical of the all-in-one solution, Ms. Hudson initially had Network Box install their managed appliance with only the Intrusion Prevention System enabled.
Happy with her initial experiences, a few days later she decided to utilize other aspects of the Network Box service, including the firewall, virus protection, anti-spam, and anti-spyware functions. Since the service would be running in tandem with her existing solutions, her risk would be minimal.
The results were beyond her expectations. “Within the first week I was astounded at the results: virus activity inside the firewall had completely stopped, spam had been “Within the first week I was astounded at the results: virus activity had completely stopped, spam significantly reduced and the information provided about services running within the Credit Union network was excellent.”
Within a short period, Ms. Hudson decided that much of the redundancy provided by her existing systems was unnecessary. She cancelled her firewall maintenance contract, scaled back her anti-virus solution to just servers and workstations, and began routing the Credit Union’s VPN connections to the Network Box.
“The Network Box has definitely been a cost saving center, says Ms. Hudson. “Since the time we have had the Network Box there have been a couple major outbreaks of viruses on the Internet, which have impacted some very large and well known corporations, also in the financial sector. We at CRCU have had to outlay no funds for virus activity, have had no interruption of service from such threats, have been totally shielded from such problems, and have actually been able to discontinue service support, hardware and software purchase from other third party AV vendors.”
The CRCU has also benefitted from being able to implement a meaningful web filtering policy something that was not possible with their previous mish-mash of solutions. As a result, in the eight months since enabling the Network Box’s content filters, there has been only one case of spyware on a single workstation. Given the substantial amount of time and energy Ms. Hudson’s support staff had previously expended on workstation maintenance as a result of spyware infestations, this translated into a significant savings.
Of course, as Ms. Hudson says, “as with any product, the most important piece is the service associated with it.” On this account the CRCU has been most impressed. with NBUSA, who have “provided us outstanding service. Their technical contacts have been used after hours, late hours, weekends, and during holidays. During these cases each interaction was professional, courteous and helpful. They have worked with us, understanding our constraints and needs. The expertise and knowledge of networking and security they provide has also been of great help to assist in some difficult areas with third party interface issues.”
Ms. Hudson concludes, “the relatively minimal cost of the 24 hour monitoring and PUSH updates, along with the professionalism, expertise and knowledge of the people and the quality of the product, make Network Box and our relationship with NBUSA an invaluable one.”
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
This case study was authorized by Community Resource Credit Union NBUSA Inc.
(formerly Network Box USA)
2825 Wilcrest Dr., Suite 620
Houston, TX, USA 77042
Web: www.networkboxusa.com
