Credit Union Uses Gateway Appliance To Prevent Privacy Breaches, Cut Down On Spam
Proofpoint Inc. recently announced NuUnion Credit Union in Lansing, Mich., has deployed the Proofpoint Messaging Security Gateway appliance to protect its messaging systems from spam and viruses, while preventing breaches of privacy regulations and leaks of confidential information. The Proofpoint appliance automatically scans for personal financial information such as social security numbers and credit card information, making it easy for financial institutions, such as NuUnion, to comply with Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (GLBA) and other data security regulations.
NuUnion needed a messaging security solution that could provide comprehensive defense against both inbound and outbound content security risks. To protect employees from unwanted spam messages and emerging virus attacks, the company has deployed the Proofpoint Spam Detection, Proofpoint Virus Protection and Proofpoint Zero-Hour Anti-Virus modules. As a result, NuUnion has eliminated virtually all spam messages, with minimal administrative intervention and hardly any instances of false positives. Using both of Proofpoint's anti-virus modules ensures that e-mail users are protected from different types of malicious code.
The company is also using the Proofpoint Regulatory Compliance module to protect its customers' personal and confidential information and to ensure that all outbound messages comply with GLBA regulations.
"Right out of the gate, I was impressed with Proofpoint's high rate of effectiveness, ease of management and automatic protection from the latest message-borne threats," said MaryAnne MacIntosh, systems security administrator with NuUnion Credit Union. "Within hours of deployment, Proofpoint stopped spam messages at the gateway and detected outbound messages that were in violation of corporate policy. Protecting our customers' data is a top priority and Proofpoint provides data privacy protection -- an ideal match for our messaging security needs."
NuUnion also takes advantage of Proofpoint's e-mail firewall features, which enable easy creation and enforcement of acceptable use policies for outbound message content and attachments. Proofpoint's pre-built policies enabled NuUnion to establish corporate messaging policies for offensive language, maximum message sizes, acceptable attachment types and maximum number of recipients on individual messages.
"More than ever, as the threat of spam and viruses continues to grow and scrutiny of customer privacy increases, financial services organizations need comprehensive, easy-to-deploy solutions for messaging security," said Sandra Vaughan, senior vice president of products and marketing for Proofpoint. "The security and privacy of customers' confidential information can all too easily be exposed via e-mail and other messaging streams, so organizations must adopt, and actively enforce, best practices for customer privacy protection."