More than 6000 PCs at Manipal are secured end-to-end by Sophos solutions

Manipal Education and Medical Group wanted a solution that would help them keep all the systems secured. With the huge number of users as well as huge amount of important data, security was of utmost importance to the group. Sophos, an IT security solution provider, implemented an end-to-end solution for the Manipal University as well as the hospital.

The Sophos solution was implemented and has been running since 2004 with various levels of up-gradations and further value additions. 

“As a part of compliance, we have to install anti-virus software across all the desktops as well as laptops in the institution. We have around 6000 desktops and 2000 laptops being used across 20 institutions and teaching hospitals. To fulfill this compliance, we chose Sophos as a solution provider, almost 15 years back,” said Sathish Kamath, assistant director of IT, Manipal University.    

The implementation

Sophos implemented two solutions for the Manipal group—Proxy-based web filter application and Endpoint security solution.

Currently, the Sophos Endpoint Solution, an anti-virus, is running on more than 6000 endpoints across the Manipal Group. At the Manipal University, Cyberoam 2500ING with full security solution along with a Total Value Subscription license mode (TVSP) from Sophos has been implemented. The Endpoint Solutions not only looks at signatures but also identifies threats through behavior analytics, and also has a pre-filter for all HTTP traffic. This helps Sophos and Manipal to track suspicious traffic as well as the file path and ensures that the threat is identified almost real-time before it reaches the endpoint.

There is also an instant and an automatic alert sent to the suspected system on what is being detected by the firewall. This information helps to discover the process behind the threat, so as to avoid the same in future.

The main concern of the Manipal group was to keep the systems secure along with having restrictions on certain website access. Sophos has implemented proxy-based web filter application for the same. The solution acts as a web proxy on the back-end of the Manipal system. It blocks users from accessing websites that are not allowed for access to the official systems as per the group’s internet policy. The solution also helps to manage application blocking. The solution offers category-based web and application blocking, control over removable media and mobile devices, and also data-loss prevention.

Advantages of the implementation

With the earlier system in place at Manipal Group, unwanted site blocking was not achieved. Having site- as well as application-blocking is one of the biggest controls that Sophos solution gave Manipal. The solution also enabled Manipal to gain more visibility on the user activities along with a report on the same.

“Of late, we have been concentrating on malware through websites. That has been detected and prevented immediately by the solution. We have also applied the company’s internet policy and implemented Sophos Cyberoam as a proxy. Both the solutions have been working well and now we are integrating the two as well. We have not faced any challenge in terms of malware or virus. As the operating systems have improved, the solutions have been becoming better,” adds Kamath.