Profile
Industry: E-Tailer
Unity Electronics (www.unityelectronics.com) is an online retailer of electronic products, digital devices, notebooks, desktops, cell phones, and computer parts. Unity Electronics averages over 100,000 transactions per month, ships to over 20 countries worldwide, and advertises on over 100 Web sites. The company's headquarters is located in Union City, California. Unity Electronics also has warehouses in Cupertino, California, and a Customer Care Center in San Jose, California.
"With NETGEAR® Stream Scanning Technology, instead of worrying about cleaning out infected computers, I am free to focus on growing the size and profitability of my business."
Russ Hedgpeth, CEO
Unity Electronics
Keeping E-Business Safe and Secure
NETGEAR® STM Stream Scanning Technology Provides Unity Electronics with Peace of Mind
Background
Russ Hedgpeth, CEO of Unity Electronics, also oversees the company's IT infrastructure. Unity Electronics' headquarters has 25 users on the network going through 2 business class DSL lines. Users on their network spend a majority of their time browsing price search engine sites such as Pricegrabber, Froogle, Pricewatch, and Nextag. On average, employees at Unity Electronics spend two hours a day on search engine sites, looking up competitive pricing information, which leaves them vulnerable and exposed to malware and attacks from the Web. Web use and Web presence is mission critical infrastructure for any online retailer. Moreover, with customer information and other sensitive data kept on user computers, it is critical that their workstations are kept clean and malware free. Although Unity Electronics had desktop anti-virus programs installed on every PC, their computing infrastructure was still occasionally getting infected with malware.
Problem/Objective
Deploy an Effective, Affordable, Easy to Install, Easy to Manage, Layer of Defense at the Internet Gateway Against Malware Threats
The infections ranged from annoying adware to self propagating worms. Removing these malware from their machines proved to be time consuming and complicated. At times, an entire re-install of the operating system was required. Russ noticed the amount of time and resources consumed dealing with these malware threats. "We were trying to catch cooties at the desktop level and it simply wasn't enough. We were sick of running from computer to computer and putting out fires. So much was spent on cleaning infected machines that we couldn't focus on our core business." Unity Electronics needed an additional layer of protection against the malware that was making its way through and infecting their machines.
After looking at the network infrastructure, Russ found that having malware protection at the Internet gateway made the most sense - i.e. utilizing an appliance that filters Web and email traffic prior to it entering the LAN. Since Web browsing was an essential activity on the network, the appliance would need to have low latency and not slow down the network in order to maintain business continuity. Ease of manageability and maintenance was also of paramount concern as Unity Electronics, like any SMB, does not have a large IT staff.
Solution
Seamless Integration of NETGEAR® STM Stream Scanning Technology
After taking the aforementioned criteria into account, Russ did extensive research on what was out on the market and found that most products that claimed to protect the Web gateway were too slow, too complicated, or too expensive. After reading a whitepaper about stream scanning technology, Russ decided to bring in a Content Security Gateway (CSG) using NETGEAR® Stream Scanning Technology for an evaluation. After receiving the CSG appliance, they were able to install the CSG into the Unity Electronics network in 20 minutes. The unit was installed as a transparent bridge between the firewall and the core switch. "I was amazed at how simple it was to integrate the CSG into the rest of the network. We gave the CSG an IP address for management, connected the cables and it immediately began scanning all our inbound and outbound traffic. I also liked how it operated as a transparent bridge and seamlessly integrated with the rest of the network. None of the other users on the network noticed that additional layer of defense was added to the network, which speaks volumes about the NETGEAR® STM Stream Scanning Technology found in the CSG." states Russ.
Result
Malware Free Business Continuity
Within 30 minutes of installing the CSG, two pieces of spyware were stopped by NETGEAR® STM Stream Scanning Technology. "We immediately saw the benefits of having NETGEAR® Stream Scanning Technology protect our network gateway. Malware that might have infected one of our machines were stopped on the spot," states Russ. "Another benefit is having the ability to go into the logs and look at the source and destinations of malware based on IP address. We found that a drive-by-download was stopped by the appliance based on the log information it provided. After examining the logs in detail, it turns out that one of the search sites we regularly use to find products had been hacked and was now hosting malware. We then notified the administrators of the site and they were able to clean the infection. Had we not installed the CSG appliance, who knows how much damage that infection would have caused across the Internet."
NETGEAR® STM Stream Scanning Technology running on the CSG appliance has now protected Unity Electronics' network for three years and there hasn't been a single infected desktop since the CSG appliance was installed. NETGEAR® Stream Scanning Technology on the CSG appliance has also on many occasions saved Unity Electronics from being compromised by particularly malicious and damaging malware outbreaks. "Many of our business partners were crippled by the Sasser worm, but we didn't even feel it." Russ is very happy about how the appliance has performed and enjoys the peace of mind NETGEAR® STM Stream Scanning Technology brings daily: "The CSG appliance using NETGEAR® STM Stream Scanning Technology has definitely lived up to and exceeded my expectations. It has been rock solid. I never have to think about it. With NETGEAR® Stream Scanning Technology, instead of worrying about cleaning out infected computers, I am free to focus on growing the size and profitability of my business."
