College and university environments are dynamic, so it makes sense that college and university networks need to be able to respond to the ever-changing, fast-paced needs of students and faculty in real time. However, that can make security a monstrous undertaking. In this week’s field reports we take a look at why Regent University selected lightweight OpenDNS Enterprise to tackle network security without placing a heavy burden on IT.
Regent University is a leading academic center offering rigorous programs and high academic standards. But when it came to blocking malware, the college’s Web filtering solution wasn’t making the grade. The Blue Coat product couldn’t scale with the school’s growth or comprehensively combat its troublesome malware problem.
When searching for a solution, the Regent University IT team begin testing OpenDNS Enterprise. Right away it was clear that the DNS-based security solution was ideal for scaling to serve the large campus. Unlike the Blue Coat solution the school was previously using, OpenDNS Enterprise doesn’t require hardware or software, so it doesn’t create network bottlenecks, and it’s able to uniquely prevent the proliferation of malware at the university.
As Jonathan Harrell, Director of Network Engineering for Regent University, explains, “With lightweight OpenDNS Enterprise we can now identify and block malware before users even know how to find it. More importantly, we can easily look at a high-level flyover of all of our networks and identify trends before they become problems. That means we’re preventing malware instead of cleaning it up.”
Since setting up OpenDNS Enterprise, the university is reporting significantly easier Internet security management and a malware prevention strategy that saves the IT department time and resources. It’s no wonder that OpenDNS is found on a whopping 50 percent of college campuses in the U.S.
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Keep it up. Tell us what you want. This is your OpenDNS.
It’s been said that DNSChanger is one of the most prolific malware attacks in history. At its peak it infected many millions of computers, belonging to people all around the world. It uses malicious DNS servers that automatically and involuntarily convert the DNS settings of infected computers, then uses that control to redirect valid URLs to malicious sites. So if you or someone you know is infected, you effectively have zero control over Internet navigation and can’t trust that the websites you’re visiting are legitimate. Some reports claim that more than half of the Fortune 500 companies showed signs of infection and it’s said that the Estonian crime ring operating DNSChanger profited $14 million in stolen funds.
The Roka Bioscience IT team was searching for a solution that would easily prevent employees from accessing sites known to host malware or botnets in addition to meeting the organization’s straightforward Web filtering needs. Prior to deploying OpenDNS Enterprise, Roka Bioscience was using a Websense appliance for Web filtering but the cumbersome appliance was too demanding for the 
Before discovering OpenDNS Enterprise, the Tervis IT team was using a software-based product for Web filtering, but the limited solution couldn’t easily accommodate filtering at the organization’s remote 
E-Z Rent-A-Car is a rapidly growing car rental agency with 15 locations and counting in the U.S. The 
If you’re using OpenDNS at work and want to share your story, 
Like most higher education organizations, Tri-County Technical College had minimal filtering needs beyond their goal of prohibiting access to sites known to transmit malware and other Internet threats. But, securing 6,000 users across four campuses placed a heavy tax on network performance. From rampant malware infections stemming from student-owned devices, to skyrocketing bandwidth consumption, the team was searching for a highly scalable, cloud-based security solution that could be quickly deployed and easily managed.
Before deploying OpenDNS Enterprise, DCC did not have a malware prevention strategy in place. Although it had extensive anti-virus protection, malware infections were dealt with manually as they were identified. How then, could purchasing a new solution add up to savings? Because the manual malware cleanup created a considerable tax on the IT team’s resources and took them away from other improvement projects. As concerns over security and reliability mounted, the DCC IT team was searching for a solution that would give them a more proactive malware prevention strategy and help them save time and money that would otherwise be spent cleaning up infections.
I will be posting a blog in the near future about how I believe security is being disrupted, but in short, OpenDNS is:
