London, England - October 5, 2009 - Reading Football Club today announces that it has purchased ’Tripwire Express’ to achieve and maintain configuration control across the club’s virtual IT infrastructure. The implementation of Tripwire Express ensures that Reading F.C. is compliant with the latest Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).

As one of the Championship’s largest football clubs, Reading F.C. processes thousands of transactions every month for match tickets, replica shirts and other paraphernalia, and the security of fans’ sensitive payment card data is vital. Garry Hanson, IT Manager of Reading F.C. says, "We have been looking at Tripwire for some time and while PCI compliance is the main objective in the short-term we are looking forward to utilising more of Tripwire’s capabilities across the virtualised environment. Tripwire is a tool which we can use to monitor our IT configuration and prevent unauthorised changes to critical files. The software is easy to use and the reports generated through the system will reduce the overheads associated with maintaining our IT systems, whilst making ongoing PCI audits much quicker."

Reading F.C. has adopted a virtual server environment which has eliminated the need for a large physical server environment, and the company went wireless following the opening of its Madejski Stadium ten years ago. Hanson comments, "For a football club our IT has always been innovative. We realised the cost and productivity benefits of adopting virtualisation early and with Tripwire’s real-time monitoring and assessment we will have full visibility of the implications of change across the entire IT infrastructure."

Hanson continues, "The value we will be getting from Tripwire makes this a very good investment. With the file integrity monitoring we can instantly pull reports, both to prove compliance as well as for internal use, saving us valuable time and eliminating the need for manual processes. In addition, the level of support we have received has been fantastic."

Hanson concludes, "We went straight to Tripwire as it ticks all the right boxes for PCI compliance and then extends its functionality to add value to our other systems. Ultimately, if you can get the Rolls-Royce for file integrity monitoring, why settle for anything less."