ForeScout Technologies has announced that it has deployed its CounterACT NAC appliance at Sutton Valence School (SVS) to ensure compliance and protect against internal threats.
SVS is a co-educational independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 3 to 18. Located near Maidstone in Kent, it was founded in 1576, making it one of the oldest public schools in the UK. Its network connects staff and students across 15 buildings and one branch location.
The school is now using the ForeScout CT-1000 appliance to protect more than 1,000 devices on its campus.
SVS recently opened a new presentation theatre at its campus. This resulted in added security threats to the school as speakers would often plug in their own laptops that require network access. Using the new system, the school hopes to eliminate threats that may be presented this way.
Mark Gosden, network manager at Sutton Valence School, said: “We chose CounterACT because it enables us to protect our network from potentially damaging, unknown machines brought onsite by boarding school students and then connected to our network.”
“The main benefit since its deployment is that we no longer run the risk of our students flooding the network with viruses and other internet-based threats, as CounterACT continuously scans each laptop for malware and alerts students, when necessary, to update their anti-virus solutions. With such a high number of new boarding students joining us each term from countries around the world, the type and scale of threats brought onto the network can be vast.”
Gosden added that the school chose ForeScout’s CounterACT because it met the requirements for network security at a lower cost than other offerings.
John Hagerty, EMEA sales director for ForeScout said: “With CounterACT, educational establishments such as Sutton Valence School have the centralised network access control and policy management tools needed to protect the network and to speed general security policy compliance. Using our product, IT personnel can build policies to ensure all connecting devices meet the security requirements of the organisation, which includes real-time identification and mitigation of self-propagating threats. SVS is a great example of an organisation that takes security seriously and is proactive about stopping viruses and increasingly targeted threats.”
ForeScout Technologies provides network access control (NAC) and policy management services. It is headquartered in Cupertino, California and its flagship product, CounterACT, has been implemented at over 500 enterprises and military installations across 37 countries.
