HP Delivers Threat Protection to Academic Institutions

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - Oct 20, 2014) - HP (NYSE: HPQ) today announced that academic institutions including Loyola University Chicago, California's Irvine Unified School District and Illinois' Collinsville Community Unit School District 10 are leveraging HP TippingPoint network security solutions to help prevent and immediately block certain cyber threats through security intelligence utilizing proactive intrusion prevention, broad-scoped threat protection and application awareness and control.

With the expanded use and reliance on technology across all levels of education, academic institutions today face a barrage of internal and external security threats that place IT operations, student and faculty information, and sensitive research at risk. While still giving the necessary network access to students and staff, IT departments within these organizations must be equipped to monitor and mitigate external threats such as malware and bot attacks on a daily basis, as well as managing internal threats such as student and faculty downloads and flash drive use that expose networks to potential infection.

"With academic institutions relying on both school-owned and student-supplied technology more than ever before, the burden falls on IT security professionals to manage the growing security risk and protect academic assets," said Rob Greer, vice president and general manager, TippingPoint, Enterprise Security Products, HP. "HP TippingPoint's network security offerings, including Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) and Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), are enabling customers in the education field to immediately detect and block threats that would otherwise expose sensitive information or disrupt student and staff productivity."

Loyola University Chicago supports a network of nearly 16,000 students, many of which bring an average of 4.5 devices each on campus. This means that the university's ITS department must detect threats and prevent infections that these devices could potentially introduce to the network. To maximize visibility into the network and attempt to block the malicious activity trying to break through, Loyola's ITS group has implemented a layered approach, leveraging HP TippingPoint's Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention System (NGIPS).