Carey Baptist Grammar School is a co-educational independent Christian school for students from Kindergarten to Year 12 and is one of the top schools in Victoria - Australia’s most densely populated and urbanised state. Carey Baptist Grammar School was founded in 1923 and has a student population of more than 2300.
Carey Baptist Grammar School has deployed FortiGate and FortiMail appliances at the school’s main campus to help protect faculty, staff and students from internet threats and cyberbullying. A FortiAnalyzer is also deployed to help monitor and analyse network usage.
Working with Fortinet partner Computelec, the school designed the ideal network security infrastructure for its needs. With more than 2000 active users accessing the network, it was critical for the school to have a security solution that would help protect the students, allowed for multiple permission levels based on roles, was easy to manage and provided detailed reports. After reviewing many options, the school decided to implement a Fortinet multi-threat solution for its integrated security approach, broad threat protection and management/analysis capabilities.
A FortiGate-310B appliance is located at the school’s main site in Victoria and acts as the internet gateway for all traffic passing through the network. The school’s network consists of two campuses, a sports complex and an outdoor education building, with all the sites connecting back to the main location for internet access.
One of the benefits of the Fortinet solution is the flexibility of its web content filtering protection, which can be customised to meet the specific needs of the school. Students in Years K-6 have multiple levels of permissions, which are different from those provided for the middle and senior levels. There are also different permission rights provided to faculty and staff, resulting in a granular set of policies that the school can easily administer.
Carey Baptist Grammar School also deployed a Fortinet FortiMail-100 to scan emails sent to and from faculty, staff and students when using the school’s email domain. One benefit of the FortiMail solution is that the IT staff can track and report on emails that might be construed as cyberbullying.
“The Fortinet solution has been seamless and has allowed us to offer better protection to our students, faculty and staff,” said Steven Archibald, ICT manager at Carey Baptist Grammar School. “Our previous solution was slow, hard to manage and didn’t offer the full array of network protection that the Fortinet appliances do.”
“Educational institutions are responsible for more than just teaching students. They need to ensure that students have protection physically and while online,” said Charlie Cote, Regional Director for Fortinet Australian and New Zealand.
