Profile
Industry: Web Software Development
Net Tango, founded in 1996, designs and builds interactive websites, software applications and database solutions (www.nettango.com).
They provide high quality, cost-effective solutions and outstanding customer service to small and large clients from many industries, ranging from individual entrepreneurs to Fortune 25 companies.
Clients include AT&T and the AT&T Foundation, the City of Louisville, Kentucky, USA and The Lebowski Fest.
“I brought in the STM to solve our spam problem, but by far the biggest benefit has been the anti-malware capabilities of the box. This additional layer of security really makes a big difference.”
Joe Abell, Software Developer/Network Administrator
Net Tango
The Perfect Solution
Net Tango Solves Spam and Malware Problems with ProSecure™ STM
Background
Joe Abell handles network administrative duties for Net Tango. Net Tango’s network has two WAN connections, one cable and one DSL, both of which are connected to a single NETGEAR VPN Firewall (FVX538) and then to a 24 port Gigabit switch. There are 20 internal users on the network that generate Web, FTP, and email traffic.
Net Tango’s email infrastructure is hosted outside of the internal network by their ISP. However, their ISP lacked effective spam filtering which resulted in a productivity problem - thousands of spam in user mailboxes.
Moreover, despite having desktop security software installed on every computer, malware infections on user machines were not uncommon. Net Tango needed a security solution which would solve both their malware and spam problems.
Problem/Objective
Malware and Spam Protection in One Appliance
An end-point solution for each threat was not a cost effective solution, and paying for security on a per-user license basis was clearly out of the question.
Abell found a number of appliances only protected either Web or email and spam, but not both at the same time. Abell also discovered another protocol-related subtlety in his research of security appliances:
POP3 spam filtering was not a common feature available in appliance based solutions.
Due to the fact that Net Tango’s email infrastructure is hosted outside of the internal network, most anti-spam solutions which filter SMTP messages would not prevent any spam from entering Net Tango’s network.
Solution
NETGEAR® STM Web and Email Threat Management Appliance
MNJ Tech, Net Tango’s IT Systems VAR, contacted Abell in early 2009 about the newly launched ProSecure™ STM Web and Email Threat Management Appliance. The STM not only scanned both Web and email for malware, but also performed POP3 spam filtering. “I went to the ProSecure Web site and the more I read the about the appliance, the more I felt that this would be a good fit. It was within our budget and had a risk free 30 day evaluation program.” stated Joe. “The patent pending Stream Scanning was also intriguing, as our software developers generate a lot of daily Web traffic.”
After the STM150 appliance arrived, Abell was able to install the appliance between their firewall and core switch. “I plugged in the cables and followed the setup wizard. Within fifteen minutes the STM was up and running. Compared to my past experience setting up networking equipment this was a pleasant surprise.” He then verified the install by testing attempting to download sample viruses over HTTP, which were detected and stopped by the STM.
Result
Two Birds with One Stone
Abell began monitoring spam and malware activity on the STM and immediately noticed a decrease in spam in users’ mailboxes. “The anti-spam was very easy to set up. All I needed to do was enable it. It worked right out of the box,” stated Abell. Moreover, within a few hours, the STM reported that it had caught 32 different instances of malware from users unwittingly downloading malware over HTTP. Further analysis by Abell indicated that most of the malware had come from popup advertisements on various Web sites. The popup advertisements automatically initiated a spyware drive-by download when users navigated to those sites.
Abell mentions, "The thing that surprised me the most was the sheer volume of malware attempting to infect our desktops. The other thing that surprised me was how transparent the STM worked in the background. None of our users noticed any difference in the network other than the spam that was missing from their mailboxes. I brought in the STM to solve our spam problem, but by far the biggest benefit has been the anti-malware capabilities of the box. This additional layer of security really makes a big difference.”
