Security in the domain of online education

Vishak Raman, regional director for Fortinet SAARC & Saudi Arabia, discusses the security issues pertaining to online education and how security systems enable educational institutions to secure their networks.

As the education sector in India is embracing the possibility of the online media, how do you look at the future of online education in India?

Online education in India is gaining prominence slowly, but indeed steadily. This is due to the fact that the numbers of Internet users are growing continuously. The tremendous growth of the economy in the recent past has also helped in the growth of online education in India.

It is especially popular with the young professionals who have joined the work force quite early but still would like to continue their education. They find online education in India very convenient, as the nature of the course work does not require them to attend regular classes.

The future of online education seems to be very bright in India as the number of Internet users is growing in the country at quite a satisfactory pace and more and more reputed players are showing their interest in the e-learning business. In fact, if prices of computers become affordable and Internet speed becomes tolerable in rural India too, e-learning can work wonders for the country.

Do you think security is a major challenge to the online education domain in the country? If so what are the major threats and challenges?

Yes, security remains a major challenge, as Internet user proliferation is roughly positively correlated to the threats online. As more students go online, passwords and secured log-ins, data archival and website integrity need to be maintained. Students must be assured that their information remains well protected and educational institutions need to ensure that their website is safe from hackers at all times.

Can you give a brief framework of Fortinet's approach towards providing educational network protection?

Fortinet's ASIC-accelerated FortiGate, a multi-threat security system, enables educational institutions to secure their networks at affordable cost without sacrificing the ease of access that students need for effective learning. Fortinet provides security solutions to protect the IT infrastructure of the institute against malicious attacks and inappropriate use of educational resources without compromising on critical educational applications.

What are the solutions that Fortinet has to offer to make the online education more secure, and how do they help the education sector?

Fortinet has different products which are available according to the usage of the customer. Fortinet’s flagship product FortiGate is a standalone solution, which addresses the key network protection needs of educational institutions with real-time scanning of email, IM, Web and file transfer content at the network edge to block viruses, worms and other inappropriate and malicious content.

In addition, every FortiGate system includes built-in intrusion prevention, firewall, VPN, antivirus, Web content filtering, antispam and traffic shaping functionality in one easy-to-install, maintain and update unit. It provides cost-effective, comprehensive protection against threats, inappropriate content, and misuse of network resources without degrading performance of critical educational applications, network availability, or uptime.

Also, Fortinet’s FortiManager and FortiAnalyzer centralized management and reporting appliances make it easy to secure thousands of desktops and laptops without overloading the IT budget or personnel. Extensive virtual domain and security zone capabilities enable administrators to craft policies specific to each department without sacrificing the performance of critical educational applications or access to necessary internal and external resources.

Can these solutions be added to the existing infrastructure of an institution?

Definitely, all these solutions of Fortinet can be added to the existing infrastructure of the institution. In fact, Fortinet’s product can be deployed in all levels like on the switch, server and the end-point user side to protect from miscellaneous threat affecting the IT infrastructure of the institute.

Which are the major educational institutions that make use of the Fortinet security solutions? How does the licensing agreement work?

In India, our solutions are deployed in Amity University, NITC, IIM-Bangalore and Ahmedabad, to mention a few. Fortinet’s age-old policy to offer per-box licensing eliminates costly per-user licensing fees and maintenance charged by our numerous competitors; sometimes these can add 4-5 times the capital purchase price to the annual operation budget.

What are your future plans for the current financial year?

Fortinet has achieved revenue milestones during the economic downturns as companies scrutinize their purchases and come to the realization that Unified Threat Management (UTM) does provide more for less. Hence, in future, we are confident that our strong performance in providing robust security on consolidated platforms will continue to push on in India, as we market ourselves to the key vertical markets and further optimize our outward evangelism in the marketplace while providing value and constant innovation.

In addition, the rise in the security market is fueled by the increasingly sophisticated threats and management overheads facing each organization. The security and vulnerability management (SVM) market is predicted to post the largest growth this year among the segments of the IT security industry, according to IDC. This market will expand 19 per cent to US$115.44 million in 2010.