Open source innovator and SNORT creator, Sourcefire, Inc. (Nasdaq: FIRE), a leader in Enterprise Threat Management, today announced that Reading Football Club has recently deployed its market leading Sourcefire 3D System to provide network visibility throughout the entire organisation and ensure the company complies to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Today, the Sourcefire 3D System monitors traffic from both internal and external sources across Reading FC's three network segments, including The Millennium Madejski Hotel, Royal Berkshire Conference Centre and Reading Football Club itself. Positioned at critical points in all three networks, the 3D System detects and blocks attacks and monitors systems and traffic for potential risks, including spyware or malware.

Garry Hanson, IT Manager for Reading FC, comments, "Even though Football Clubs are not large organisations, they can be popular targets to a range of internal and external threats. While we were already monitoring our external network, internally we had little visibility.

"After thoroughly researching the market and examining the Gartner Magic Quadrant, we opted for Sourcefire. The capabilities offered by Sourcefire RUA (Real-time User Awareness) and Sourcefire RNA (Real-time Network Awareness) really sold us on the system."

PCI DSS compliance is a key driver for Reading FC, as the organisation accepts credit card payments via its physical locations and an ecommerce site, used to distribute tickets, sell merchandise and handle online bookings. PCI DSS is a program designed to protect cardholder information, reduce fraud, and identify security issues that could lead to the compromise of card details.

Failure to comply can result in an organisation losing its ability to process credit card payments and in some instances face heavy fines. Under the PCI DSS code Reading FC is required to build and maintain a secure network, protect cardholder data, implement solid controls, regularly monitor and test networks and maintain an information security policy.

Hanson continues, "Sourcefire has moved us much closer to achieving PCI compliance and more. We now have visibility that enables us to effectively protect against threats to our systems, and the additional network intelligence has dramatically reduced the number of false positives we receive, so we have saved a lot of time.

"I found the intuitive web based interface easy to use and the reporting, showing me how my network evolves over time, is clear and straight forward. The implementation also ran very smoothly. I would happily recommend Sourcefire. It is one of the most professional companies we have ever used and its detection and protection capabilities are second to none."

To protect the club's customer data and to help the organisation as it works towards achieving PCI DSS compliance, Reading FC is using Sourcefire RNA (Real-time Network Awareness). RNA monitors all traffic on the network, and identifies what part of the network is vulnerable to a potential attack enabling Reading FC to prioritise which events it needs to attend to. Additionally, Sourcefire RUA allows the organisation to correlate network behaviour to specific individuals within the company to provide the fastest possible incident resolution and internal visibility.

All network data is gathered in the Sourcefire Defence Centre, so that when an intrusion or other risk is identified, the 3D System uses the combination of data to either block the threat or sends an instantaneous email alert. The IT department then receive relevant and prioritised alerts that contain all of the information they need to determine the appropriate response. With built-in context and few false positives, these smart alerts significantly reduce the effort required to monitor potential threats.

To save time and ensure that the implementation process ran smoothly, Reading FC enlisted the help of Sourcefire's Professional Services Team. The Sourcefire engineer installed and configured the 3D System in just a few hours.