Security | News

Regent U Secures Network with Cloud-Based OpenDNS

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 05/17/12

Regent University has implemented a new Internet security application intended to block user access to Web sites known to carry malware and to stop infected machines from being able to access the network. The 6,000-student institution in Virginia Beach, VA has moved off of an appliance it had in place and onto a cloud-based service from OpenDNS.

OpenDNS Enterprise prohibits access to sites known to host malware so that the university's students and faculty can't download it. It also eliminates communication between infected devices and the networks they access in order to quarantine the malware and prevent it from spreading. The service, which is Web-based, also provides a dashboard that lets network and security administrators monitor network activity from a browser.

"With lightweight OpenDNS Enterprise we can now identify and block malware before users even know how to find it," said Director of Network Engineering Jonathan Harrell. "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."

Plus, the Web-based console allows him and members of the IT team to stay on top of wired and wireless network events. "Whether I'm making network changes, examining high-level network reports, or drilling down to identify the source of potential threats, I can do it all on the go with easy-to-understand reports," Harrell added.

OpenDNS products are also in use at Texas A&M, Penn State, and Georgia State University, among other schools.