Network Protection for Educational Campuses Tablets and smartphones are flooding your campus - but are you at risk? Tablet PCs, iPads and smartphones have revolutionised learning. When you allow students to bring their own laptops and tablets into the classroom learning environment, these bandwidth-hungry users are logging onto your network to access social media, online applications, multimedia documentation and assignments – there are two things to consider; - network security threats and challenges - visibility and control of applications being accessed
Common threats and challenges faced by educational campuses There are several needs, threats and challenges universal to the education sector, from primary and secondary schools through higher and adult education. These include protection from malware, secure connectivity between remote locations and the network, protection from inappropriate content and compliance with regulatory requirements, maximisation of bandwidth and other network resources, protection of administrative resources and students from intrusions, ease of maintenance and updating, maximisation of capital and expense budgets. To make matters worse, attacks are increasingly “blended attacks”, morphing the worst characteristics of viruses, worms and network intrusions in powerful, multi-faceted agents. Blended threats spread through networks with unprecedented speed by exploiting known vulnerabilities in widely deployed software applications. New vulnerabilities are exposed for educational campuses with conventional antivirus defence solutions, new vulnerabilities are exposed by the practice of allowing faculty and students to access their personal, web-based email accounts from within the campus network. Traditional port-based firewalls and access type controls are simply not enough.
Visibility and control More than ever, it’s important for your campus to monitor and control the use of web-based social networking applications and cloud-based services in order to safeguard against harmful or inappropriate content. Application control is essential to manage the explosion of new Internet-based technologies bombarding networks today. You can gain full content and applications visibility of your network by redefining your network security and control.
Fortinet’s multi-threat security systems address the needs of educational establishments As a Fortinet Gold Partner, LAN2LAN recommends Fortinet FortiGate. The FortiGate systems are available to meet a wide range of needs, from entry-level models that are cost effective for the smallest schools, to multi-port, multi-gigabit models that support high availability and advanced networking features consistent with the needs of the most demanding, mission critical networks.
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The price/performance provided by FortiGate systems makes it possible for educational institutions, of all sizes, to enjoy the highest level of network protection without compromising security, performance or budgetary constraints. Fortinet’s multi-threat security systems provide a complete solution that addresses the full range of threats to educational campuses. Specifically, a single FortiGate system, easily installed and maintained at the edge of a campus network can be used to: • Stop viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware and inappropriate content before it enters or exits the campus network • Provide VPN services and scan tunnels for harmful or inappropriate content • Block the use of campus networks for illegal file swapping and/or limit the amount of network bandwidth allocated to swapping applications • Filter web traffic for inappropriate content based on URLs, keywords, or both • Alert administrators to attempts to compromise critical computing systems • Support compliance with government regulations and thereby qualify for special funding • Limit exposure to liability caused by allowing inappropriate or malicious content to enter or exit the campus network • Provide content archiving features to store messages and content embedded within emails, web downloads, and instant messenger text and file attachments in an external storage device such as the FortiAnalyser series of products LAN2LAN can help you mobilise your campus without sacrificing compliance or security. We can offer consistent network protection across multi-sites, controlled by a single set of security policies which can be centrally managed, with the option to turn on additional layers of security if required.
Greater network security with a reduced budget LAN2LAN has experience and expertise in the Education sector to work with you to consolidate your network security costs. Traditionally educational establishments have invested in individual layers of security to take care of different things such as web filter, anti-spam, anti-virus, intrusion prevention, firewall protection and remote access security. We will help you to migrate and consolidate your different layers of technology into just one product and one support contract using a phased approach that reflects your licence renewal dates. Network security consolidation can help you deliver greater security with a reduced budget. It reduces your IT carbon footprint (power and space overheads), shrinking your infrastructure estate without compromising its effectiveness and allows you to make far more efficient use of existing resources, budgets and skills. Fortinet is a proven technology. The Fortinet market position has been validated through widespread recognition by industry analysts, such as Frost & Sullivan, Gartner and IDC.
If you would like to know more about network security and what this means to your campus, please email info@LAN2LAN.com or call us today on 01483 594100