With an increased focus on security within education, keeping your school or college safe..

News
27/07/2022

..is easy with end-to-end network security


With students always digitally connected and preoccupied with completing online school assignments or video chatting, they’re unaware that an entire network in the backend is making all this possible.


Education IT teams are tasked with not only keeping the network secure, which is challenging enough on its own, but also with protecting end-user devices and ensuring the physical and online safety of students and staff. All these serious responsibilities, paired with limited resources, create a challenge for education IT teams.


So how do you protect endpoints, networks, and students, all at the same time?

Independent networking and WiFi experts Redway Networks recommend Cisco Meraki in helping education IT teams do just that. With solutions that span all three areas, a Meraki solution, installed by Redway, ensures student and staff devices are secure, the network is safeguarded from vulnerabilities, student data is protected, and everyone is safe walking around campus — all from one, easy-to-manage dashboard. Below are a few examples that illustrate what Meraki’s endpoint, network, and physical security can do for your educational establishment:


Endpoint Security

As 1:1 programmes continue to grow and students bring more devices to campus endpoint security has become increasingly important. With an endpoint management solution, you can protect students of all ages from seeing inappropriate content, accessing blacklisted sites, and downloading unknown applications by using content filtering, group policies, and advanced malware protection. If a device is lost or stolen, especially one holding sensitive information, you can easily identify its location and retrieve it or remote wipe its contents. Most importantly, by protecting all the devices that students and teachers use every day, the network can remain secure from common endpoint security vulnerabilities.


Network Security

Nearly 80% of headteachers believe their school faces and increased risk of a cyber incident and schools and colleges are becoming regular targets for cyber-attacks and many schools lack a cyber-security policy or the right training. Cyber criminals often gain access to private student data or important research, and threaten to share this sensitive information. The first line of defence comes by creating group or user-based policies for students, teachers, and staff, and restricting who can access various parts of the network. With integrated intrusion protection and malware scanning, users can easily stop malicious threats and files before they enter the network while prioritizing trusted educational applications with Layer 7 firewall and traffic shaping rules. With increased network visibility, you can track and shut down rogue access points, set up email alerts when rogues are detected, and contain rogue SSIDs, AP spoofs, and packet floods. Most importantly, with Meraki’s cloud-managed MX security solution, you can ensure the latest firmware updates are pushed to the network automatically to guard against the latest security threats and vulnerabilities.


Physical Security

Schools are tasked with providing safe learning environments for all students and teachers, without fear of trespassers, poor behaviour, or unforeseen incidents. With smarter security cameras, you can quickly identify when a person is where they shouldn’t be and view video analytics of school activity to identify high-risk areas. You can also help deter threats and incidents with the ability to quickly search recorded video and easily share with parents and law enforcement. With granular access controls and visibility from any Internet browser, teachers, principals, chancellors, and even the fire department can view groupings of cameras, or a single camera, and act accordingly. Plus, with video data encrypted at rest and during transport, you get even more protection against cyber threats.


Redway Networks partners with Cisco Meraki to provide its education customers with the perfect blend of endpoint, network, and physical security with the safest environment. Redway can help your school or college manage all its security solutions from a single, web-based dashboard so you can simplify device, network, and security camera management through remote configurations, video monitoring, and application deployments.


During August and September Redway Networks is offering FREE, no obligation remote networking surveys to schools and colleges who want to assess their security posture or solve network issues. For more information, email: info@redwaynetworks.com