Case Study: University of Waterloo stops malware and ransomware and regains IT productivity with Proofpoint

University of Waterloo Chooses “Beyond Better” Threat Protection

The University of Waterloo, a leading Canadian research university, was overwhelmed by malware and ransomware arriving via email attachments—at times about 40 infections per week—forcing security and client services teams to spend hundreds of hours restoring and reimaging systems. Existing email gateway and antivirus tools weren’t stopping threats, and the university needed a solution that fit its differentiated email architecture without major routing changes.

Waterloo deployed Proofpoint Email Protection and Targeted Attack Protection with Attachment Defense (integrated between its LDAP/MX host and Exchange), quickly reducing delivered threats and sandboxing suspicious attachments for safe investigation. The change eliminated the bulk of malware and ransomware infections, freed security and support teams from large-scale remediation, simplified the email stack, and gave the university more flexibility to evolve its security posture.

University of Waterloo

Jason Testart

Director of Information Security Services