German company happy with VirusBuster's security solution

Stuttgart-based Walter Druck GmbH, a printing company heavily relying on its sophisticated digital systems, has been a satisfied business user of VirusBuster's products for years. In the interview below, Stephen Lavey, Walter Druck's IT manager spoke of his company, the special threats faced by the digital printing industry, and their experience with VirusBuster.

VirusBuster: Walter Druck is long established company, which has moved with the times, and has embraced modern technology. What is your company's focus today and what kind of equipment do you use?

Stephen Lavey: Our mission is to produce excellent quality print and media solutions. Employing a team of 25, Walter Druck specializes in print finishing, web-to-print solutions involving variable data print runs, picture personalization and digital asset management. Print runs are undertaken on an SM74 traditional offset and an HP Indigo 5000 digital offset machine. Plates for the former are output on a thermal head computer to plate (CTP) device. The workflow is driven by the Xinet, InPress and Kodak software suites.

-- Would you tell us a few words about yourself? You came to the company with impressing international experience.

-- I commenced my career in the prepress and printing industry in the mid 80’s in London, England, working as a photo-lithographer. As technology progressed, so did the automation. My career moved into the electronic page assembly area and later into workflow automation taking me vocationally to South Africa and Germany for many years. With Walter Druck, I work with prepress software from companies such as Xinet, InPress and Kodak. I also participate in the Kodak Graphical Users’ Association as an advisory board member.

-- Are there any special security concerns in the digital printing industry?

-- We are constantly receiving files from third parties, varying diversely in file size. Consequently, data is not only sent as e-mail attachments and via various transfer protocols, but can arrive on CD, USB stick and AIT magnetic tape. We therefore have to protect our LAN computers from direct exposure in addition to network related attacks. On the positive side, many of our computers use the Mac OS X operating system, which, to the best of my knowledge, is less targeted than the Windows environment.

-- What kind of threats do you typically face?

-- Basically we initially considered spam to be irritating and inconvenient, however once we analyzed just exactly how much time employees were spending hand-filtering emails, we considered it a threat! Viruses grew equally in volume and stealth, hence it was imperative we acted accordingly.

-- Have you had any bad experience?

-- Questions like this always make me nervous. It's almost tempting fate! With the exception of a few false-positive mails, I think we've been quite fortunate.

-- How did you get to know VirusBuster?

-- Previously, we used a product called RAV. However, to the best of my knowledge, production ceased following an acquisition by Microsoft. The local reseller recommended VirusBuster as a suitable alternative. We found that it was simple to integrate into our workflow and we could see that VirusBuster was "forward thinking" as a company with regards to future modules and features. So, in 2005, we made our decision. Currently, we use VirusBuster for Mail Severs on the Linux platform together with Extended Spam protection. We purchased the solution from Computer Center Werner (CCW, or, with its new name, makeSECURE GmbH) -- here, in Germany.

-- How has your VirusBuster configuration evolved over time?

-- We did very little initially to the configuration after installation, as the "out-of-the-box" setup proved to match our needs. Over time however, as the volume of spam and viruses grew at an enormous rate, we made use of the mail white list and purchased the Extended Spam Protection module. This was an excellent addition to the VirusBuster software and brought the spam and virus deluge under control again. The fact that it updates its spam and virus databases on a regular basis means it practically runs itself.

-- What has been your experience with the solution's installation, use, features, performance and support?

The initial installation and all ensuing upgrades have been easy and virtually without any downtime. Recently we deleted 16 GB of quarantined mail; the software is obviously doing its job. We're happy with the product and services and have no intention to change. The manual has improved greatly and resembles more of a handbook as opposed to the "telephone directory" appearance it once had! If I had to give a single feature request, it would be to have the ability to configure via a web-browser. We only ever contact VirusBuster when undertaking an upgrade. As with any upgrade, we're concerned about stability and any caveats. The support team have always been happy to assist whilst undertaking such operations. They have answered any cases quickly and efficiently, so my initial concerns have proved unnecessary. We're often asked what software we're using for spam and virus protection. We have recommended VirusBuster to others as well.