The university is deploying the appliances at internet gateway points throughout its campus-wide network, which serves both administration and academic departments comprising of over 30,000 users.
The Reconnex iGuard technology will make it far easier and faster to find and mitigate problems, allowing us to improve network security while freeing up staff time for other important functions, says Amy Hennings, assistant director, information security, the GW.
Two years ago, the GW’s security team began scanning servers for confidential data, which was problematic due to there being both Microsoft Windows as well as Linux and Apple servers, hosting a number of different applications that create and use data. Ensuring data integrity on a system-by-system basis was extremely difficult; we decided we needed to complement these types of checks with a network-based view of the problem, said Hennings.
With the Reconnex iGuard, the GW will be able to automatically scan all traffic leaving and entering its network, regardless of the server that data resides in or the application being used. Confidential information, such as social security numbers, will be identified.
GW expects the iGuards will help its forensic investigations by logging data passed between systems. When security incidents arise, the university can use the iGuards to look at the entire data session and determine what information was accessed. In addition, the iGuards will be used to pinpoint unauthorized servers on campus and inappropriate data use.
