Case study in NAC: The Holy See

The Holy See is the body that governs the Catholic Church and is considered a sovereign entity under international law. Its information technology infrastructure is complex, and its Internet Office is responsible for managing all of the Vatican's technical activities, technology projects and publishing-related matters. After using other Sophos solutions, the Holy See adopted Sophos NAC Advanced to ensure complete control over its network access rights, compliance with security regulations and protection against unauthorized access.

"The introduction of Sophos NAC Advanced represents the final step in protecting our network by managing the access of millions of users with different profiles and authorization, dispersed throughout Vatican City, Rome and the entire world."
Stefano Pasquini, Director of the Internet Office of The Holy See

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Fact file

Business challenge

• The Holy See manages the Vatican's public website, its intranet and the 2000 email accounts for those who work there. A secure network that protects against both known and unknown threats was essential.
• The complex network required protecting against data leakage and network access risks.

Technology solution

• Sophos NAC Advanced was deployed to take care of all the Holy See's IT security compliance and network access needs, and was easily integrated with the existing network infrastructure, which already used Sophos Anti-Virus and Pure Message for UNIX.
• Sophos NAC Advanced assesses all computers for compliance with the Holy See's security regulations, ensures that security applications and patches are installed and up-to-date, and provides easy reporting on compliance with security regulations.

Business results

• The introduction of Sophos NAC Advanced represents the final step in the Holy See's objective of securing its entire network, which began with the introduction of Sophos Anti-Virus, and continued with the adoption of PureMessage for UNIX.
• Using Sophos NAC Advanced, the Internet Office now successfully manages the access of millions of users, checking that each user conforms to security regulations and only has access to the information that they need, without affecting network performance.