The Calyx Group has deployed an email and website security system for the Irish Stock Exchange that will guarantee the flow of information free from the intrusion of spam or spyware.
Since 1793 the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) has been providing for the trading of equities and government bonds and also in the listing of investment funds and specialist debt securities.
However, at the dawn of the 21st century the venerable institution was inundated with spam, which accounted for some 90pc of its inbound email.
As part of the deal, Calyx deployed a system from IronPort. Operating as a part of Cisco’s Security Technology Group, IronPort is a leading provider of anti-spam, anti-virus and anti-spyware appliances for organisations ranging from small businesses to the Global 2000.
The ISE required a new spam solution that was capable of being self-managed and easy to administer compared to the existing solutions that were in place.
“Following a number of very successful installations on sites in Ireland, we were confident IronPort would be the best solution to resolve the Irish Stock Exchange’s spam problem,” said Tim Quan of Calyx Security.
“IronPort C100 devices stop the spam messages at the gateway, even before they enter the network.”
Accurate Reputation Filtering was a key aspect of the IronPort deployment. The IronPort devices can accurately determine which messages are not good by reputation and can confidently drop the connections having used over 100 parameters to assure the email is legitimate.
The initial deployment was an instant success with spam email reduced dramatically within days. Users were able to review spam quarantines and release valid messages when appropriate, reducing the reliance on IT staff.
Following the successful implementation of the IronPort email security devices, the ISE engaged with Calyx to look into the deployment of new web security devices to replace its existing solutions.
A key requirement was reverse proxy look-ups for web traffic. The ISE also required a reputation filter on a web proxy which would be able to cache and also deal with viruses, phishing and spyware attack.
“We now have two single devices which have replaced multiple devices in previous solutions,” explained David Garrett, IT operations manager at the ISE. “This has provided savings both from a cost and time perspective.”
By John Kennedy
