Vanderbilt Fights Back At Botnets

PRESS RELEASE

ATLANTA—July 6, 2010—Damballa Inc., the company transforming the fight against

cyber threats, today announced that Vanderbilt University has selected Damballa™ Failsafe to detect and terminate botnet breaches and other cyber crime activity that relies on advanced malware and network-based command-and-control.

Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tenn., is a private research university and medical center offering a full range of undergraduate, graduate and professional degrees. Damballa will be deployed across the Vanderbilt University enterprise, which includes ten academic schools, the academic medical center, various research divisions, and the student body.

“Bot agents are the malware of choice for cyber criminals today,” said Salvador Ortega, associate director of information security for Vanderbilt University. “The signature-based, antivirus industry is losing the malware war. We found Damballa Failsafe to be extremely accurate in detecting botnet activity. Damballa provides us with a unique solution to defend against the silent threat of botnets and advanced malware.”

Vanderbilt recognized the need to further modernize its already significant security infrastructure with technology that could address the advanced nature of today’s cyber threats. The University also realized that recent trends in end-user computing are putting a strain on traditional security defenses, specifically:

The ‘consumerization’ of IT has resulted in more personal laptops and mobile devices entering the network, making it more difficult for IT to ‘lock down’ computing resources or enforce standardized configurations.

The new, young workforce, sometimes referred to as ‘digital natives’, are demanding unfettered access to Internet resources and social networking sites, providing nearly unlimited infection vectors for botnet operators.

“Vanderbilt University has demonstrated a strong track record of staying ahead of the rapidly advancing network security threat,” said Kevin O’Connor, vice president of worldwide sales for Damballa. “Like our growing list of Fortune 1000 customers, Vanderbilt understands that today’s advanced malware is elusive and will defeat even the best prevention technology. Damballa is uniquely positioned to detect and terminate these threats before they can do harm. We are proud to add Vanderbilt as a customer.”

“As an institution of higher learning, we value academic freedom and information sharing,” said Ortega. “However, it is imperative that we protect our intellectual property, personal health information, and research health information, as well as comply with HIPAA and other government requirements. Damballa allows us to passively detect and terminate these threats in a manner that is not invasive to our large community of diverse users.”

About Damballa

Damballa stops crimeware threats that exploit enterprise networks for illegal activity by finding and terminating the hidden communication channels used to control breached computer systems. Damballa solutions protect companies from the devastating effects of botnets, advanced persistent threats, next generation malware, cyber crime, and insider threats. Damballa customers include major banks, manufacturers, ecommerce providers, Internet service providers, government agencies, educational organizations, and other companies typically targeted by organized cyber crime. Privately held, Damballa is headquartered in Atlanta. http://www.damballa.com