Security news
Security news18 May 2007
Close-up: Marlborough Boys' College protects itself with Sophos
Students at Marlborough Boys' College in New Zealand are protected by Sophos solutions.
Safeguarding students and staff from computer threats and unsuitable internet content is a major priority for Marlborough Boys' College, one of New Zealand's largest secondary schools.
Founded in 1900, Marlborough Boys' College, in the South Island of New Zealand, is considered to be one of the nation’s leading secondary schools. The College is located in Blenheim which is the principal town of the Marlborough province. The province is export focused and has a strong emphasis on quality service and production. Its main products are wine, forestry, wool, seafood and frozen food.
Marlborough Boys' College takes pride in its reputation for academic, sporting and cultural excellence, and supports students with a wide range of resources for their learning and personal development.
The College's investment in technology is a key contributor to student, teaching and administrative success, and supporting this investment is a commitment to providing a safe and secure online environment for all computer users.
Realising that the potential repercussions of a virus or spyware outbreak, or offensive content, reaching students and staff could spread far beyond its gates, the College selected Sophos as its IT security partner in late-2005. Sophos is a world leader in IT security for the K-12 education sector and currently protects more than six million teachers, students and administrators around the world.
Sophos now fully protects more than 1,000 students currently attending classes at Marlborough Boys' College, as well as over 100 teaching and administrative staff.
According to Peter Olliver, Marlborough Boys' College Information Manager, "Schools are unique organisations in that the systems are often targeted by hackers, spammers and virus writers thinking that our defences are weak. The paradox, of course, is that we have a significant duty of care to our staff and especially our students, and therefore must have quite strong defences in place."
"What makes boys' schools even more unique, perhaps, is the inquisitive nature of the students who seek to push the boundaries of the computer network," Olliver says. "With Sophos in the background, we can allow students to have some flexibility while ensuring they and the network remain protected at all times."
Technology Solution
Desktops, servers and gateways are protected against malware and spam threats.
The College has deployed Sophos's integrated anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-spyware and email policy solutions across every server, desktop and email gateway at the College. Importantly, every computer is automatically updated and centrally managed using Sophos's Central Management Console.
The network features five IBM Blade servers and a Windows 2003 Exchange Server. The College also provides more than 300 desktop computers for student use - a mix of fat-and thin-client Windows computers - as well as computers for each of the teaching and administrative staff.
"Sophos is a great solution for the College because we have been able to effectively 'set and forget' the system," Olliver says. "Sophos updates automatically in the background, without requiring any administration, and if we do have to make any changes, it is easily done through Sophos's Central Management Console. What that means for the school is that our IT staff can focus their attention on developing and supporting quality teaching programs."
The College also permits every student and staff member to remotely access its network and applications via their laptops and home PCs through a Citrix Access Gateway.
Sophos Anti-Virus perfectly complements the Citrix environment by avoiding unnecessary repeat scanning of files that have already been confirmed to be free from infection, thereby reducing system overheads and offering improved performance.
According to Olliver, "Sophos constantly protects our students and staff from viruses and spyware when they connect to the school network through Citrix. At any point in time we can have hundreds of people logging on and off our network remotely, so it is vital that we can support their needs with high speed access. The use of Sophos does not impact on our network performance."
Sophos's PureMessage email solution uniquely integrates anti-virus, anti-spam and policy enforcement to help the College protect students from exposure to offensive content without restricting freedom of communication.
Sophos also provides the College with 24/7 live customer support as well as access to its network of SophosLabs™ threat analysis centers.
The system was installed by AISCORP which designs, builds and installs scalable ICT infrastructures for schools throughout New Zealand.
Business Results
According to Olliver, "Sophos provides the College with a solution that exceeds the standards set out by the New Zealand Ministry of Education, and since taking on Sophos we have never had a major computer virus outbreak across our network."
"Furthermore, with Sophos we feel our network is future-proofed against new threats that may arise as we ramp up our internet infrastructure through participation in the Marlborough region's 'Loop Project' which will provide us with very high speed internet access, in excess of 200mb/s."
The College's overall IT infrastructure has also responded positively to Sophos's security software.
"The Sophos software was a very welcomedchange from our previous anti-virus solution which required our IT administration staff to be very hands-on with its day-to-day management, and it had a degrading impact on our network performance," Olliver says.
Sophos's regular updates are small in size, automatic, and quick, minimising the impact on the College's network performance so its students and staff can work uninterrupted while always protected against new threats.
"We are committed to providing educational programs and an environment which meets the needs of our students. With Sophos, we know that from a security standpoint we have the highest levels of protection in place which helps us to maintain an effective learning community," Olliver concludes.
- Find out more about how Sophos is trusted to secure education networks
- Listen to a Sophos podcast: "Schools: The IT security challenge"
- Read case studies of other educational organizations who are protected by Sophos
Do you know how many employees are running virtualisation software on their PCs?
About Sophos
Sophos enables enterprises all over the world to secure and control their IT infrastructure. Sophos's network access control, endpoint, web and email solutions simplify security to provide integrated defenses against malware, spyware, intrusions, unwanted applications, spam, policy abuse, data leakage and compliance drift. With over 20 years of experience, Sophos protects over 100 million users in nearly 150 countries with its reliably engineered security solutions and services. Recognized for its high level of customer satisfaction and powerful yet easy-to-use solutions, Sophos has received many industry awards, as well as positive reviews and certifications.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com
