1. Ireland’s Schools Network: Delivering a Safer Online Environment for Irish Schools? Presentation to TERENA Networking Conference 2007 by Ronan Byrne, HEAnet 22nd May 2007

2. Presentation Structure  Background: Ireland’s Schools Network  Technical Design Overview  Schools Survey Approach  Findings  Conclusions

3. Background: Irish Schools Network 4,000 schools 3 Year Government/Industry Agreement 6 Telcos interconnect directly with HEAnet HEAnet manage backbone network HEAnet provide portfolio of managed services: –Managed Internet access –Network Monitoring & SLA Management –Network Security –Webmail & Webhosting –Content Filtering HEAnet Schools NOC provide 2 nd Line Support

4. Technical Overview

5. Centralised Content Filtering Dept. of Education requirement “Centralised” approach Public Tender Procurement 2004/2005 Fortinet solution Security node at 2 x PoPs 500 Mbps ‘in-line’ & scalable Web filtering; virus scanning; anti-spam; IDS/IPS Logging & statistics “Security Profiles” set by Dept. of Education

6. Fortinet: Web Filtering Database of 26 million rated Websites 76 Categories 24x7 Managed Service White & Blacklists – override categories Unrated sites blocked (24hr rating) Currently 2 levels of filtering but is capable of giving each school it’s own profile

7. Content Filtering: “Is it working?”

8. Research Questions  In assessing overall effectiveness, four key research objectives were identified: 1.Assess the general support for filtering in schools 2.Effectiveness at blocking inappropriate material 3.Extent of over-blocking 4.Extent to which schools are more likely to incorporate the Internet in the classroom

9. Research Methodologies Survey Questionnaires (quantitative & qualitative) Follow-up telephone interviews (qualitative) Analysis of filtering logs at HEAnet (quantitative)

10. Survey Approach Survey conducted over Q2 2006 400 schools contacted (representative sample) Questionnaire designed to investigate key research objectives Questionnaire by postal & email survey Realised sample of 136 schools Also, questionnaire completed by 10 teachers at a single school

11. Survey Questionnaire Findings

20. Analysis of Filtering Logs (for same sample of 136 schools for 1 week)

22. Top 10 Blocked Categories across All Schools

23. Spyware 34,997 Pornography 7,611 Personals & Dating 18,883 File Sharing 16,605 Adult Materials 37,619 POST-PRIMARY SCHOOLS

24. Spyware 71,873 Adult Materials 5,955 Malicious Websites 5,175 PRIMARY SCHOOLS

25. Conclusions

26. General Support for Filtering Service Filtering welcomed by schools No evident opposition Not considered a form of censorship Filtering supported even though similar controls may not exist outside school 99% of survey sample felt schools had a responsibility to filter but only 26% had a solution in place prior to HEAnet solution

27. Effectiveness at Blocking Inappropriate Content Significant volume of inappropriate content has been blocked Over 220,000 HTTP look-ups (3.7% of traffic) were to blocked categories (1 week for 136 schools) Extrapolating beyond 1 week and across 4,000 schools amounts to a significant volume of inappropriate content! Spyware represents 2.02% of all traffic (or 2 out of every 100 HTTP gets is Spyware generated!) Significant reduction in virus detections

28. Extent of Over-Blocking 85% of primary schools describe filtering sensitivity as “just right” 52% of post-primary schools describe filtering sensitivity as “just right” Suggests a filtering level more specific to post-primary schools is needed Telephone interviews reflect schools moving from more restrictive to less restrictive filtering option Majority of schools do not desire local control/responsibility A ‘teacher override’ option desired by most schools

29. Inclination to use Internet in classroom 78% of schools surveyed state that they would further incorporate the Internet in classroom activity since the introduction of the filtering service A significant success factor in itself!

30. Closing Summary Teachers welcome filtering service Inappropriate material being blocked Degree of over-blocking not significant for majority Large volume of spyware is now blocked Virus incidents have reduced significantly 96% of schools surveyed either “agree” or “strongly agree” solution is delivering a safer online environment 78% of schools surveyed more inclined to use Internet CAUTION: Filtering technology is not a silver bullet

31. Thank you! Email: ronan.byrne@heanet.ie