PlainsCapital Deploys Blue Coat As Foundation For Web Security
SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 13, 2005 — Blue Coat Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BCSI), a leading provider of proxy appliances, today announced that PlainsCapital Bank, the second largest privately held bank in Texas with $2.5 billion in assets, has deployed Blue Coat proxy appliances as a foundation of the bank’s Web security infrastructure.
Web applications and communications are essential to conducting business at PlainsCapital Bank. The bank previously used firewalls and intrusion prevention as the primary tools for network security, but quickly found those products had numerous limitations when it came to enabling comprehensive “Web” security across the network. The Blue Coat ProxySGTM and ProxyAVTM appliances play an essential role in providing Web security, and are centrally deployed in the PlainsCapital network infrastructure to provide comprehensive Web visibility, control and performance for more than 600 users across 20 branch office locations.
“Blue Coat proxy appliances are the key to our Web security infrastructure,” said Mike Griffin, director of information technology for PlainsCapital Bank. “Blue Coat ProxySG and ProxyAV appliances have eliminated our spyware-related help desk issues, are preventing viruses from landing on our desktops through IM and Web-based back doors, and have saved us thousands of dollars that would have otherwise been spent upgrading our Internet links.”
” Proxy for Web Filtering — PlainsCapital leverages Blue Coat’s Web Filter URL list on the ProxySG to set and enforce Web access policies across the bank network. By deploying URL filtering from Blue Coat “on-proxy,” PlainsCapital Bank realizes a Web filtering performance increase. The bank also benefits from a comprehensive database of more than 8.0 million URLs and the industry’s only URL filtering database with two separate URL filtering categories for spyware – one for access to known spyware sources and one for destinations where spyware attempts to “phone home”.
” Proxy for IM Control — After one PlainsCapital employee unknowingly infected a computer with an IM virus, PlainsCapital enabled instant messaging control from Blue Coat to prohibit the transferring of files over IM. Blue Coat’s IM control solution is integrated within the ProxySG appliance to provide PlainsCapital with comprehensive control, logging and reporting of all IM traffic. The solution enables PlainsCapital to control which users are allowed to utilize IM, which IM protocols are allowed and which features are enabled.
” Proxy for Spyware Prevention — Spyware had been forcing the PlainsCapital IT team to spend up to two hours at each desktop computer with “reactive” spyware cleaners. Blue Coat proxy appliances prevent this pain by stopping spyware at the gateway before it can land on the desktop. The integrated, proxy-based solution stops “drive-by” spyware installations, controls communications with known spyware Web sites, and scans Web content for known spyware signatures – all while enabling legitimate and necessary Web applications to install and function.
” Proxy for Deployable Web Anti-Virus — PlainsCapital is enabling Web anti-virus for the first time with Blue Coat’s ProxyAV Web anti-virus appliance. Blue Coat’s Web anti-virus solution is the only Web anti-virus solution that could maintain the bank’s real-time Web traffic requirements, delivering only 4 milliseconds average latency. The solution quickly and intelligently processes Web objects to determine which objects should be scanned. Suspect Web objects are quickly scanned, and if deemed clean, delivered to the end-user. Clean objects are also cached on for an additional performance benefit.
” Proxy for Bandwidth Optimization — Increasing use of the Internet and Web applications were choking network performance at PlainsCapital. Rather than upgrade the Internet links, the PlainsCapital IT team tapped into Blue Coat’s bandwidth management and caching capabilities to recoup some of the company’s bandwidth. Blue Coat’s ProxySG enables PlainsCapital to create policy-based bandwidth limits, deny access to bandwidth intensive content like .mp3 downloads, and cache redundant content requests. This eliminated the need to purchase additional Internet links.
“PlainsCapital Bank is another great example of a company tapping into the power of a proxy-based network architecture for comprehensive Web security,” said Steve Mullaney, vice president of marketing for Blue Coat. “Blue Coat proxy appliances provide visibility and control over Web use and applications, and unlike any other network element, actually improve network performance.”
About PlainsCapital Corporation
PlainsCapital Corporation is among the largest privately-held financial services companies in Texas, serving business centers and communities across the state. An integral part of this family of 10 companies, PlainsCapital Bank is the second-largest independent bank in Texas with over $2.5 billion in assets. Offering a broad array of financial services including commercial and private banking, wealth management, trust, treasury management, capital equipment leasing, residential mortgage, title insurance and 1031 exchange services, PlainsCapital’s employees are empowered to deliver individualized solutions to ensure their clients’ financial success. Find more information at www.PlainsCapital.com.
About Blue Coat Systems
Blue Coat helps organizations make the Web safe and productive for business. Blue Coat proxy appliances provide visibility and control of Web communications to protect against risks from spyware, Web viruses, inappropriate Web surfing, instant messaging (IM), video streaming and peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing – while actually improving Web performance. Trusted by many of the world’s largest organizations, Blue Coat has shipped more than 20,000 proxy appliances. Blue Coat is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and can be reached at (408) 220-2200 or www.bluecoat.com.