500,000 educational users will be protected by Sophos under the deal.
All 33 universities and technical colleges in the Northrhine-Westphalia region of Germany have chosen PureMessage and Endpoint Security solutions by Sophos to defend against the threats of viruses, spyware and spam.
Sophos's integrated security solutions offer students and employees protection against known and unknown malware, as well as hacker attack. Furthermore, they can be managed and configured via the Sophos Enterprise Console which reduces the workload of administrators.
Around 60,000 employees and 450,000 students use the networks of the universities and technical colleges every day. The IT systems and data are now protected against malicious code and unauthorized access which until now has been an ongoing challenge for the responsible IT departments.
"It only takes seconds for viruses, worms and Trojans to spread in open networks at universities. Students not only use the provided email programs and applications at university but also from home," said Satish M. Tripathi, head of information technology and networks of the technical college in Dortmund. "Therefore we need extensive protection at the gateways as well at the endpoints. Sophos provides the appropriate solutions for that level of defense."
The Northrhine-Westphalia license is valid for all universities based in the region. In addition, Sophos Anti-Virus can be used by all employees and students on their home PCs.
Sophos protects many universities and educational establishments around the world from the threats of viruses, worms, spyware and spam.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com.