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Ireland’s Schools Network: Delivering a Safer Online Environment for Irish Schools?

Ireland’s Schools Network: Delivering a Safer Online Environment for Irish Schools?. Presentation to TERENA Networking Conference 2007 by Ronan Byrne, HEAnet 22nd May 2007. Presentation Structure Background: Ireland’s Schools Network Technical Design Overview

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Ireland’s Schools Network: Delivering a Safer Online Environment for Irish Schools?

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  1. Ireland’s Schools Network: Delivering a Safer Online Environment for Irish Schools? Presentation to TERENA Networking Conference 2007 by Ronan Byrne, HEAnet 22nd May 2007

  2. Presentation Structure • Background: Ireland’s Schools Network • Technical Design Overview • Schools Survey Approach • Findings • Conclusions

  3. Background: Irish Schools Network • 4,000 schools • 3 Year Government/Industry Agreement • 6 Telcos interconnect directly with HEAnet • HEAnet manage backbone network • HEAnet provide portfolio of managed services: • Managed Internet access • Network Monitoring & SLA Management • Network Security • Webmail & Webhosting • Content Filtering • HEAnet Schools NOC provide 2nd Line Support

  4. Technical Overview

  5. Centralised Content Filtering • Dept. of Education requirement • “Centralised” approach • Public Tender Procurement 2004/2005 • Fortinet solution • Security node at 2 x PoPs • 500 Mbps ‘in-line’ & scalable • Web filtering; virus scanning; anti-spam; IDS/IPS • Logging & statistics • “Security Profiles” set by Dept. of Education

  6. Fortinet: Web Filtering • Database of 26 million rated Websites • 76 Categories • 24x7 Managed Service • White & Blacklists – override categories • Unrated sites blocked (24hr rating) • Currently 2 levels of filtering but is capable of giving each school it’s own profile

  7. Content Filtering: “Is it working?”

  8. Research Questions • In assessing overall effectiveness, four key research objectives were identified: • Assess the general support for filtering in schools • Effectiveness at blocking inappropriate material • Extent of over-blocking • Extent to which schools are more likely to incorporate the Internet in the classroom

  9. Research Methodologies • Survey Questionnaires (quantitative & qualitative) • Follow-up telephone interviews (qualitative) • Analysis of filtering logs at HEAnet (quantitative)

  10. Survey Approach • Survey conducted over Q2 2006 • 400 schools contacted (representative sample) • Questionnaire designed to investigate key research objectives • Questionnaire by postal & email survey • Realised sample of 136 schools • Also, questionnaire completed by 10 teachers at a single school

  11. Survey Questionnaire Findings

  12. Analysis of Filtering Logs(for same sample of 136 schools for 1 week)

  13. Top 10 Blocked Categories across All Schools

  14. POST-PRIMARY SCHOOLS Spyware 34,997 Pornography 7,611 Personals & Dating 18,883 File Sharing 16,605 Adult Materials 37,619

  15. PRIMARY SCHOOLS Spyware 71,873 Malicious Websites 5,175 Adult Materials 5,955

  16. Conclusions

  17. General Support for Filtering Service • Filtering welcomed by schools • No evident opposition • Not considered a form of censorship • Filtering supported even though similar controls may not exist outside school • 99% of survey sample felt schools had a responsibility to filter but only 26% had a solution in place prior to HEAnet solution

  18. Effectiveness at Blocking Inappropriate Content • Significant volume of inappropriate content has been blocked • Over 220,000 HTTP look-ups (3.7% of traffic) were to blocked categories (1 week for 136 schools) • Extrapolating beyond 1 week and across 4,000 schools amounts to a significant volume of inappropriate content! • Spyware represents 2.02% of all traffic (or 2 out of every 100 HTTP gets is Spyware generated!) • Significant reduction in virus detections

  19. Extent of Over-Blocking • 85% of primary schools describe filtering sensitivity as “just right” • 52% of post-primary schools describe filtering sensitivity as “just right” • Suggests a filtering level more specific to post-primary schools is needed • Telephone interviews reflect schools moving from more restrictive to less restrictive filtering option • Majority of schools do not desire local control/responsibility • A ‘teacher override’ option desired by most schools

  20. Inclination to use Internet in classroom • 78% of schools surveyed state that they would further incorporate the Internet in classroom activity since the introduction of the filtering service • A significant success factor in itself!

  21. Closing Summary • Teachers welcome filtering service • Inappropriate material being blocked • Degree of over-blocking not significant for majority • Large volume of spyware is now blocked • Virus incidents have reduced significantly • 96% of schools surveyed either “agree” or “strongly agree” solution is delivering a safer online environment • 78% of schools surveyed more inclined to use Internet • CAUTION: Filtering technology is not a silver bullet

  22. Thank you! Email: ronan.byrne@heanet.ie

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