Alabama School District Graduates to Application Whitelisting District chooses Bit9 Parity™ to Secure Computers in Five Schools

09.03.2008 – Waltham, MA – Bit9, Inc., the pioneer and leader in Enterprise Application Whitelisting, announced today that the Trussville City School District of Trussville, AL, has secured its computers using Bit9 Parity™. Trussville selected Bit9 Parity to replace application control technology from Lumension Security, Inc.

A recently-founded school district that runs five schools and reaches 4,150 students, Trussville created a state-of-the art, technology-focused curriculum that utilizes blogs, podcasts and other Web 2.0 advances to help enhance the learning process. As a part of the new program, a majority of teachers and students in the sixth grade have been issued laptop computers, which introduced security challenges that needed to be addressed. Specifically, the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires schools to have an acceptable policy in place to block or filter access to offensive material and to monitor online activities of minors.

Trussville Schools chose Bit9 Parity to implement adaptive application lockdown. The district has identified the approved, authorized applications that are allowed to run on the school’s computers, and Bit9 Parity prevents any unauthorized or malicious software from running. This customized lockdown mode ensures administrators, pupils and teachers are provided proper access to the software resources they need, while reducing any immediate and long-term burden on the IT staff.

“We sought a reliable, simple-to-administer security solution for our school district,” said Shawn Nutting, director of technology for Trussville City Schools. “Bit9 Parity has allowed us to reap the benefits of our investment in new learning technologies while preventing any viruses or unauthorized software from compromising the well-being of our students.”

Trussville decided to implement Bit9 Parity after facing challenges with its previous security solution, which included administrative complexity, crashing systems and blocking of routine software updates.

“We’re thrilled Trussville City Schools chose to replace a competitive solution with Bit9 Parity. We are pleased to be able to provide teachers and pupils with a secure and flexible learning environment,” said Tom Murphy, chief strategist, Bit9.

The Bit9 Parity whitelisting solution provides organizations with the visibility and control needed to automatically whitelist applications and devices. All other applications, including malware and unauthorized software, will not execute on endpoints. Using this approach, Bit9 helps reduce any risk associated with unauthorized software, including the next generation of malicious attacks.

About Bit9, Inc.
Bit9 is the pioneer and leader in enterprise application whitelisting. The company’s patented solutions ensure only trusted and authorized applications are allowed to run, eliminating the risk caused by malicious, illegal and non-authorized software.

Unlike traditional, reactive controls that scan and try to prevent the never-ending list of unauthorized software, Bit9 leverages the Bit9 Global Software Registry™ — the world’s largest database of software intelligence – to ensure only authorized applications can run, delivering the highest levels of desktop security, compliance, and manageability.

Bit9 customers include companies in a wide variety of industries, such as retail, financial services, healthcare, e-commerce, telecommunications, as well as government agencies. Founded in 2002, Bit9 is privately held and based in Waltham, Massachusetts. For more information, visit http://www.bit9.com or call 617.393.7400.