Cybersecurity

Dartmouth Selects WootCloud HyperContext Security Platform

• By Matt Jones
• 03/11/21

Ivy League research institution Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, N.H., has selected WootCloud’s HyperContext Security Platform to provide device security and next-generation access control across the entire campus. WootCloud announced in a press release on Wednesday, March 10, that it would be partnering with the university to provide end-to-end visibility, context, threat remediation, and analytics solutions.

The press release said that WootCloud intends to address challenges with unmanaged devices and drive remediation to reduce threats specific to higher-education environments. In addition to offering its device security, network visibility, and analytics, it will work to discover indicators of compromise at the level of individual devices like student gaming systems and connected speakers.

“WootCloud’s micro-segmentation capabilities are a game-changer,” said Dartmouth’s Director of Information Security, Sean McNamara, Sr. “We will be able to make on-the-fly access control decisions based on a person’s identity, as well as their normal patterns of usage and device hygiene characteristics. This will allow us to make the most of our investments in information security by ensuring the most effective protections are in front of the right people and right resources.”

The university cited WootCloud’s handling of specific cases like access rights for visiting faculty and students, device identification related to student health and safety, and bandwidth utilization as evidence of its ability to adapt its technology to higher education environments. Another factor in the university’s decision was WootCloud’s performance on core threat and risk use cases. Its capabilities regarding network micro-segmentation and next-generation access control using access point infrastructure already in place were also strong selling points.

“It’s not a black box solution, but a platform that easily integrates into our existing ecosystem,” said Felix Windt, Sr., Dartmouth’s Director of Network Services. “WootCloud gives us building blocks to use going forward as we develop and incorporate new solutions that will ultimately need to know what a network device is and who it belongs to.”

“As an Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning based security platform,” said WootCloud CEO Amit Srivastav, “it’s especially gratifying to be selected by the very institution that saw the birth of AI during a Summer Research Project in 1956.”