HOWELL ? Howell Public School District is protecting students and faculty from Internet-based attacks using Secure Computing’s Webwasher products, a web gateway appliance that enables the district to filter all web site access, scan all inbound and outboard interactions and reduce and minimize administrative costs.
“Webwasher makes it possible for us to protect our students and staff from malicious Web-based threats,” said Paul Pominville, technology director, Howell Public School District. “It’s easy to manage and it works. It does exactly what we need it to without tedious administration or tweaking.”
Before turning to Webwasher, the Howell Public School District used separate filtering, firewall, and desktop anti-virus products, but these ultimately failed to meet all their needs. After conducting an exhaustive evaluation, they found that numerous Web protections were offered in a single, easy-to-deploy and -administer Web gateway security appliance — Secure Computing Webwasher.
One of the problems noted by Pominville is that tech-savvy students had been able to find ways around previous security and filtering products. For example, he said they’d set up SSL-based proxies from home, bypassing the previous filter and exposing the network to malicious code or files.
“In many cases, kids are more technically skilled than their teachers and parents,” said Pominville. “They might be done with an assignment in 10 minutes, giving them the rest of the class hour looking for ways around the filter, or to try to poke holes in the firewall,” he said. “Obviously, we needed to put a stop to this by using SSL scanning, and Webwasher does this beautifully.” The appliance blocks remote proxy access altogether, in fact, protecting students from using so-called “anonymizers,” image caching (such as Google Image Cache) or encrypted sites to bypass filtering technologies. “We’re now able to consistently enforce a ‘SafeSearch’ option across all student PCs in our network.?
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In order to prevent malware from infecting the Howell Public School District network, the Webwasher appliance leverages next-generation reputation technology as a “first line of defense.”
Another great benefit of Webwasher is that it saves IT staff time and money.
“It gives us peace of mind,” reported Pominville, “while removing the burden of manual patches, updates and reports.” He explained: “For example, we need to run investigative reports on specific users approximately once a week, and Webwasher does this efficiently, shaving hours off the process we experienced with competitive systems.” He continued: “I also no longer waste time doing things like tracking proxy servers being used by students. Webwasher’s advanced technology and reporting capabilities do that for me. It takes the headache out of administration and management.”
With the new appliance from Secure Computing in place, Howell Public School District officials are no longer concerned about students getting around Web filters to visit inappropriate or dangerous destinations on the Internet. “I know Webwasher really works because the students tell me so. They used to brag about their achievements in getting around the filter or firewall; now, if they try to circumvent the system they get a ‘blocked site’ message every time! It’s funny really.?
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Located in southeastern Michigan, Howell Public Schools includes 12 schools serving 8,500 students in grades K-12. It also incorporates a community college that allows students to earn an associate’s degree while completing high school. Technology plays a major role throughout the district facilities, including a first-of-its-kind high-tech store that utilizes radio frequency identification (RFID). A lean staff of four IT professionals serves the entire network.
For more information, click on SecureComputing.Com
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