Reading FC has deployed Sourcefire's 3D system to manage its network infrastructure and ensure that it meets the rigorous requirements of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

Sourcefire 3D will be used to monitor internal and external traffic at the club's football ground, Madejski Hotel and Royal Berkshire Conference Centre.

The system will monitor the club's networks, detecting and blocking attacks while checking for any suspicious activity or traffic.

"Football clubs are not large organisations, but they can be popular targets for a range of internal and external threats," said Garry Hanson, IT manager at Reading FC.

"While we were already monitoring our external network, internally we had little visibility.

"The capabilities offered by Sourcefire Real-time User Awareness and Real-time Network Awareness really sold us on the system."

Compliance with PCI DSS was a key driver in the decision making process, according to Hanson.

The club relies on credit card payments across all three sites, and failure to meet the requirements of the payment standard could lead to heavy fines, prevent the club from taking credit card payments, and give it a lot of negative publicity.

"Sourcefire has moved us much closer to achieving PCI compliance and more," said Hanson.

"We now have visibility that enables us effectively to 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."