SonicWALL's Email Security 500 provides a solution with continuous update features that is easy to manage, protects both inbound and outbound messages and offers the versatility of stopping multiple and simultaneous e-mail threats. The appliance also supports the hospitals obligation to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which requires the hospital to keep its email correspondence secure and ensure that patient information remains private and protected.

Despite having a security solution in place, Saint Francis found itself overwhelmed with spam at rates upwards of 570,000 spam e-mail messages and 340 inbound viruses per month. Between 90 and 95 percent of all e-mail received by the hospital was considered spam. This volume clogged e-mail servers, and cluttered users' e-mail boxes with unwanted and unproductive messages, forcing employees and medical professionals to spend valuable time weeding junk mail.

"Spam not only threatens the network, it is also a productivity killer that our medical professionals and staffers shouldn't have to deal with," said Ryan Smith, network administrator for Saint Francis Medical Center. "E-mail has become a critical communications tool at Saint Francis, which means we need a security solution that will protect our organization and patients from e-mail threats, as well as keeping our users' inboxes clear. We decided to protect our hospital with the SonicWALL Email Security appliance."

SonicWALL's Email Security 500 features anti-virus engines from partners McAfee and Kaspersky, while its Time Zero Anti-Virus Technology provides proactive virus defense complemented with responsive techniques to stop viruses as soon as they emerge. The appliance's user management feature reduces false positives, allows each user to personalize their spam settings. This feature enables Saint Francis to handle the unique needs of its employees and medical staff who deal with a variety of medical issues that include terminology that may be blocked by traditional filters.

Smith added, "Enabling doctors and nurses to adjust their own e-mail protection settings allows our IS staff to focus on other technology issues that impact the Center's operations. Further, the SonicWALL implementation was seamless. We had the product installed in a few hours, and management of the solution takes less than an hour a week of IT staff time. With these advantages, it is easy to see why SonicWALL was the right solution for Saint Francis."

SonicWALL Email Security also serves as a platform for internal policy and regulatory compliance, providing Saint Francis with a number of layers of protection to enforce e-mail use policies designed to provide for the appropriate handling of patient information.

"Hospitals present an interesting challenge for e-mail security, given the sensitive nature of patient information, the shared workstation environments, the different roles of users, and the government and industry regulations that oversee the operations," said Gleb Budman, senior director at SonicWALL. "SonicWALL's solution is versatile, powerful and easily manageable, which is a good combination for a busy medical center. We are very pleased that Saint Francis' staff, nurses and doctors can now use e-mail as it was intended, protected from electronic threats and the frustration of spam. SonicWALL Email Security technology allows hospitals, such as Saint Francis, to focus on their chief objective of providing quality patient care."-SonicWALL