ST. PAUL – Students will have better cyber protection as St. Pul Education completes updates on its network security and school-based firewall enhancements.
The updated security measures have already blocked over 500,000 attempted intrusions, according to Cody Machney, the school division’s technology lead, during the board of trustees meeting on March 12.
Machney clarified the blocked intrusions are not necessarily targeted attacks but rather a constant wave of automated hacking attempts, bots, and other online threats occurring throughout the globe.
“It’s just proof of what’s out there,” he said, suggesting caution is needed when dealing with anything online.
Part of the recent upgrades involve the installation of seven new firewalls across the division's out-of-town school sites, which not only improves network security, but allows schools to have better control over internet access.
In addition to anti-virus protection, the new firewalls’ intrusion detection systems (IDS) also monitor and analyze network traffic for suspicious activity.
Geo filtering was also implemented, which “shuts off traffic from outside Canada,” said Machney.
“We can specify that we're allowed to have traffic from the U.S. and Canada, but anything beyond that, no one from outside the world can actually . . . hit any of our sites.”
The upgrades are part of the province’s broader effort to strengthen the network infrastructure and improve online safety for students and staff throughout schools in Alberta.
Superintendent Peter Barron commended Machney and the school division’s technology team for their work, “[and] keeping us safe from the bad actors of the world.”
“We know that [cybersecurity threats] is a real part of our world,” said Barron.
