SecuraNET Products

SecuraNET UTM – Why it’s important in Education Institutions

SecuraNET UTM – Unified Threat Management as it is becoming popularly known, is the latest and definitive, all-encompassing security solution for commercial organizations and is now being seen as equally applicable to schools. Yes, it may sounds like a US military red alert, but it is the true “must have” security appliance – one that protects your valuable school network from a myriad combination of external attacks.

Traditionally, educational institutions and the broader community of learning and research organizations have been cultures of openness—derived from the fundamental believe that the process of learning is fostered by the ability of individuals to freely pursue and explore their ideas. Needless to say, having to balance virtually wide open access with the necessity to protect the integrity and privacy of grading systems, financial aid records, and other sensitive information is no small feat.

Some specific reasons why the Bulwark’s SecuraNET UTM appeals to the Education Institutions include:

• Education networks must accommodate a very large and diverse population of unmanaged computing devices. The configuration and security state of these machines is at best “unknown.” Coupled with their migration between multiple networks, this all but ensures that a meaningful number are indeed infected with a wide variety of malware. “Wild” networks such as unsanctioned WLANS and resident networks add further fuel to the fire.
• Remote/distance learning, real-time web collaboration, and other progressive initiatives further drive the need to support access to resources and newer, potentially unproven technologies.
• Liability is a persistent concern as curiosity and a mix of other; less altruistic motivations inevitably lead to misuse of computer resources which directly or indirectly impact other parties negatively. File swapping of copyrighted material has lead to more than 100 educational institutions being subpoenaed to divulge the identities of file-sharing students. In addition, another liability concern is when Open University networks are used as intermediary launching points by hackers for attacks against other organizations.
• Consistent with the theme of education, there is bound to be a highly diverse portfolio of applications and technology requiring protection. Having seemingly “one of everything” available for the global marketplaces is only the beginning. There will inevitably also be home-made protocols and applications to contend with as well.

• In today’s world, network security is just as important as physical security for school. We need to ensure the students are supervised while they are on campus, but at the same time make sure their personal information is protected and that the right safeguards are in place while they are surfing the web in the classroom or computer lab.
• Stops anyone from accidentally or intentionally being able to access sensitive areas of the school’s network.
• Student hackers using tools they can easily access from the web, you have to look out for vulnerabilities caused by popular activities like instant messaging and peer-to-peer file sharing. Programs like Kazaa and Morpheus not only eat up your valuable bandwidth, they also expose the network to backdoor attacks and expose the school to potential legal liability claims. So most Educational Institutes want their School’s network secure.
• Lurking beyond your gateway are vast amounts of inappropriate web content, malicious viruses and individuals looking to breach your school’s network security.
• It’s clear that schools need the same layers of network security technology that businesses need. But deploying multiple devices from different sources can be real nightmare. While big business often solves these security problems with sizeable IT option for school districts.
• A school or district’s network is at risk from the same viruses, worms and hacker attacks. Laptops expose you to viruses picked up from unsecured home networks. And if that weren’t enough, your wireless, which can easily be cracked with software downloaded from the internet.

• To meet these challenges, Bulwark’s SecuraNET has developed fully integrated security system to appliances delivering everything you need to protect your network. We offer a range of products and services, from affordable solutions tailored for school to powerful solutions with the capacity to server an entire school district.
• All Bulwark’s SecuraNET Products feature stateful deep packet inspection firewall which act as the first line of defense against security breaches. Integrated IPSec, Virtual Private Networking (VPN) delivers a secure and affordable means of connecting remote locations or staff working from home.
• Bulwark’s SecuraNET solution offer the most affordable way to protect your student from harmful and inappropriate web content. Our content filtering Service is ideal for small to mid-sized school districts looking for cost effective integrated solution.
• Bulwark’s SecuraNET gives schools an automatically updated solution that eliminates time-consuming machine-by-machine anti- virus deployments and updates. Because students and teacher must have the latest updates running on their system to access the Internet, you will know you always have the highest level of protection.
• Bulwark’s SecuraNET uses a dynamically updated database of over 1900 attacks and vulnerabilities to put a stop to network attacks, malicious traffic, Trojans, and worms. It also closes possible backdoor network

• Education institutes can able to block outside threats from entering, including emails with a viral payload, port scans and other infected devices searching for a vulnerable host. So the main benefit is consistently high performance with our network with no speed degradation. Reducing management of network security as a result of SecuraNET ease of use and automatic updates.
• Content Management: As higher education institutions extend Web applications and Internet access to students and staff, they need to manage the use of the Internet and bandwidth. Bulwarks SecuraNET offers Educational Institutes several flexible options to block objectionable Web content, filter URLs, and manage their Internet usage policies. URL filtering does the following:
• UTM devices can cost as little as one fifth as much as the equivalent point solutions, and offer significant cost savings in management and implementation overheads such as training, maintenance, installation and upgrades, Kilpatrick says. Licensing per appliance rather than per user also reduces on-going costs.

  1. Enables management of Internet usage policies to block, allow, delay, coach, or simply report on student and staff Web access
     
  2. Increases staff and student productivity by limiting access to unproductive Web content
  3. Reduces legal liability exposure
  4. Recaptures wasted bandwidth              
  5. Enhances Internet security
• As threats become more varied and more numerous, so user organizations face the added problem of managing more and more security products. SecuraNET UTM has multiple solutions on a single box, making it easier to position to the end-user. With point solutions, in a large organization you can potentially end up with 100 devices to manage, all with their own look and feel.
• A single management infrastructure and standard web-based management console interface enable system administrators to provide rapid response to security issues, deploy solutions and updates quickly, create and enforce policies, query end points, and create necessary management reports and charts with ease.
• Allowing teachers to work from home and be more productive away from school.
• Providing administrators with the ability to solve problems remotely.
• Providing the IT staff with better tools to manage network devices, security and resources remotely.
• Secured and Constant access of Internet because of no downloads of unnecessary things.
• Network optimization and performance has been outstanding due to SecuraNET UTM an embedded UTM system.
• Due to Advanced Content Filter, students are not able to access any pornography, adult sites, in accordance with the school's requirement and policy.
• At a time Access log report helps administrator to check the current internet usage Virus and Worm attacks has been reduced due to SecuraNET UTM Gateway Antivirus module.
• All the Messenger including MSN, Yahoo, Rediff, India times, and Skype has been blocked.