The McAllen Independent School District (ISD)
has selected eTrust
Intrusion Detection to safeguard its web-based assets and monitor Internet
usage across its thirty-one schools.
With a district of 2,800 staff and 22,000
students, the management of technology resources has always been a tall order
for the McAllen IT staff. Last year, this task became even more challenging
with the passage of a Texas law, mandating that schools provide Internet
connectivity and one workstation for every three students by 2001.
As the staff began rolling out Internet
access to the student body, it also had to bring the school into compliance
with the “Children’s Internet Protection Act,” which requires that
minors be protected from access to harmful material in the school setting.
McAllen selected CA’s eTrust Intrusion Detection to provide flexible
access control and administer and enforce security policies across the
District’s web-based services.
“eTrust Intrusion Detection has
been instrumental in helping the District meet state and federal mandates
regarding authorized access to network resources,” said Tomas Perez, MIS
director, McAllen. “Its powerful tool set has enabled us to safeguard our
network environment while applying security policies that can be tailored to
the different requirements of students, teachers and staff. In just a short
time, eTrust Intrusion Detection has helped us establish a built-in
layer of protection against both internal misuse and outside security
threats.”
The staff is using eTrust Intrusion
Detection to safeguard students’ Internet activity by blocking access to
restricted websites and limiting usage to certain hours of the day. Perez
reports that eTrust’s filtering capabilities have enabled him to
fine-tune login access procedures, so that usage is less restricted for
teachers and administrators.
Currently, eTrust Intrusion Detection
safeguards children and protects against network hacking across McAllen’s
email, Internet, and intranet environments. As increasing numbers of teachers
request network services from their home PCs, Perez anticipates extending
their use of eTrust to create a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which
will also be monitored in accordance with District policy and state and
federal law.
In addition, McAllen has implemented
Unicenter TNG, CA's enterprise management solution for eBusiness, to
proactively manage network resources and increase service levels across its
expanding IT infrastructure. eTrust Intrusion Detection is one of 17
security software solutions of the eTrust product family. The unmatched
breadth and sophistication of the eTrust product family – which
includes certificate management, risk assessment, attack detection, and loss
prevention – enables management teams to defend, administer access, and
ensure the management and security of complex eBusiness environments. eTrust
solutions are also compliant with established and emerging security industry
standards, ensuring interoperability with existing internal security
mechanisms and those of eBusiness trading partners.
About McAllen Independent School District
McAllen ISD is a multicultural community in
which students are enthusiastically and actively engaged in the learning
process. Students demonstrate academic excellence in a safe, nurturing and
challenging environment enhanced by technology and the contributions of the
total community. The mission of MISD is to educate all students to become
lifelong learners and productive citizens in a global society through a
program of educational excellence utilizing technology and actively involving
parents and the community.
