Security is a matter
of reducing risk. You are never 100% safe from being hacked or having
a virus do serious damage. These things can limit your risk
- Firewall
- Proxy
server
- VPN
- Password
entry
- Diligent
users
- Web
Folders for remote access
Safety
There
are several types of filtering
|
keyword
|
Simple idea but in practice causes
much frustration as good sites are blocked while other "inappropriate"
sites are let through. |
|
Site based
|
The provider supplied x,000 sites that
they recognise as being inappropriate. This is a good idea but recently
rolling IP numbers and new sites buying recognised good sites have
caused some difficulties. |
|
Sniffing Software
|
Based on a combination of the above
but does not "trap and test" each site reducing the overloading
issue discussed below. |
|
Combination
|
Many new products offer a combination
of the top two and we expect combinations of all three technologies
soon. |
Filtering
on site basis not key word is a good idea . . . . . BUT
Henrico
County uses N2H2's Bess filtering solution, which works through a proxy
server device that acts as a network gatekeeper, comparing internet
addresses requested by students to a list of sites that should be blocked.
The company updates its database of blocked sites every night. But when
Henrico County added such a large number of laptops, the district's
proxy servers apparently became overloaded. "The process of looking
at every request in a proxy server creates a bottleneck," said
Stallard. http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/reports/filtering0302
