Santa Clara University Leverages Vectra Networks to Protect Against Advanced Persistent Threats and Malware on Campus Network

SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwired - May 19, 2015) - Vectra Networks, the leader in real-time detection of in-progress cyber-attacks, today announced that Santa Clara University (SCU) has deployed its X-series platform, enabling them to protect private university and student information on its campus network from malware and today's advanced persistent threats. Now, SCU has the automated threat detection it needs to secure private data and address FERPA, HIPAA and PCI compliance concerns from security risks, including those introduced by the highly mobile nature of students and the university community.

SCU is California's oldest-operating institution of higher education, with more than 150 years of history. A comprehensive Jesuit Catholic university located in California's Silicon Valley, SCU offers its more than 8,000 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master's, Ph.D., and law degrees. Distinguished nationally by the fourth-highest graduation rate among all U.S. master's universities, SCU demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice.

"Security on campus would be a lot easier if we were dealing with just staff and faculty, but students bring on to our network a host of BYOD devices that we have little control over and are often infected," said Bryan McClenahan, Senior Security Analyst at SCU. "Vectra quickly showed us its value by giving us the visibility into our network and our security devices that we need. It finds the needles in the needles stack -- we don't even have a haystack."

According to McClenahan, SCU uses a variety of security solutions, including Symantec anti-virus, Palo Alto Networks firewalls, and IBM QRadar security information and event management (SIEM) solutions. He and his small security staff do not have time to analyze information from all these devices on a regular basis to dissect and create defenses, he said.

"We can't look at all our solutions every day, and the visibility and integration that Vectra gives us is invaluable," he said. "The UI is very intuitive and easy to use. Vectra's ability to pull all our information together and, with the addition of explanations into incidents detected, facilitates quicker resolution to issues, and that adds significant value to our organization."

"The benefits delivered by Vectra at SCU are great examples of how organizations can protect their data and meet regulatory compliance with advanced intelligence and visibility into their networks," said Rick Geehan, VP of North American Sales. "With mobile adoption nearing 100 percent, campuses and organizations alike are struggling to keep unmanaged devices from introducing infections and malware on their networks. Vectra detects and reports on threats at every phase of an attack using data science and behavioral analysis, and integrates with security systems to prioritize incidents for IT teams."

Vectra Networks enables K-12 and higher education institutions to protect information and privacy on distributed campus networks populated by student and faculty BYOD devices, and meet campus compliance requirements such as the Family Education and Rights Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

About Vectra Networks
Vectra Networks is the leader in real-time detection of in-progress cyber-attacks. Vectra delivers continuous automated cyber-attack detection and reporting that instantly identifies attacks while they are happening and describes what the attacker is doing. Vectra automatically prioritizes attacks that pose the greatest business risk, enabling organizations to quickly make decisions on where to focus their time and resources. Vectra Networks' investors include Khosla Ventures, Accel Partners, IA Ventures and AME Cloud Ventures. The company's headquarters are in San Jose, Calif. More information can be found at www.vectranetworks.com.

Vectra Networks is a registered trademark of Vectra Networks in the United States and other countries. All other brands, products, or service names are or may be trademarks or service marks of their respective owners.