Following a worm attack that rendered a significant area of the largest NHS Trust in the UK’s IT network inoperable, Leeds Teaching Hospitals chose the award-winning Kaspersky® Open Space Security to deliver a reliable and cost-effective network security solution.
The Challenge
The Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust is the largest NHS Trust in the UK providing high quality hospital services for the population of Leeds and its surrounding areas. Acting as a regional centre for a number of specialist services, the Trust also boasts the largest teaching hospital in Europe.
With over 16,000 employees working across seven sites, this Trust’s IT network system consists of approximately 7,000 PCs and over 100 Microsoft Windows-based servers. Therefore, a reliable security solution that protects against current and future viruses and other malicious attacks is
of paramount importance.
The Solution
In 2004, despite having a major competitor’s antivirus protection in place, the Leeds Teaching Trust network was infected with the Sasser worm, which resulted in high levels of bandwidth usage and ultimately led to the shutdown of large areas of the Trust’s network. The Trust Computer Services Manager for Leeds Teaching Hospitals, Chris Archer explains, “The Sasser worm left a large area of the Trust’s network inoperable and this flaw demonstrated an immediate requirement to review our network security software provider.” Archer continues, “After evaluating numerous products we selected Kaspersky Lab for its ability to deploy a proven, reliable and cost-effective network security solution. When compared to its competitors, Kaspersky Lab was able to supply the best management interface within our Novell NetWare environment, and during rigorous testing by our technical team the Kaspersky Administration Kit also proved itself to be a superior management tool.”
Conclusion
Following the successful completion of the testing period, the technical team decided to roll out the Kaspersky Lab solution across the Trust’s entire network. Archer adds, “The implementation was a relatively quick and straightforward process and this remains true today. We make certain that all PCs and laptops that connect to our network are fully supported by Kaspersky Lab before they are given access, ensuring the highest level of security across the network. Kaspersky Lab products have met our requirements at the PC, Laptop and server level, giving us peace of mind in the knowledge that we are protected against a major virus outbreak.”
