Office Professional 2010 NSW seeks to build unhack

By Brett Winterford on Sep 23, 2009 twelve:36 PM
Filed underneath Security

The world's "most hostile computing environment".
The NSW Division of Schooling is making use of asset-tracking application, RFID tags, and BIOS-embedded filtering smarts to roll out 240,000 netbook personal computers into what CIO Stephen Wilson calls "the most hostile atmosphere you'll be able to roll computers into" - the regional substantial school.

The rollout of Lenovo netbooks,Office Professional 2010, funded beneath the Federal Government's Digital Training Revolution initiative,Windows 7 Pro, is a huge logistical and IT protection challenge, and also the answer Wilson and his staff has place jointly to repair these problems could effectively be relevant to any company IT division.

Over four years, some 240,000 Lenovo netbooks will probably be presented to college students in yr nine. The netbooks could be held until finally 12 months 12,Windows 7 Ultimate Key, or permanently should the university student complete his or her scientific studies at the school. Netbooks can also be getting offered to teachers.

To get receipt from the netbooks, pupils and dad and mom are asked to sign varieties during which they acknowledge their obligation to acquire care from the devices and rely on them appropriately.

They are armed with the enterprise model in the new Windows 7 running program, Microsoft Office, the Adobe CS4 imaginative suite, Apple iTunes, and subject material geared to college students. Although the netbooks are loaded with many a huge selection of bucks of computer software, 2GB RAM and a six-hour battery,Office 2010 Product Key, the cost to the NSW Section of Training is less than $500 a unit.

Underneath the covers from the netbooks - and within the network that controls them - lies a great deal more smarts to ensure that the total cost of ownership of each machine does not blow out.

Wilson said that while private schools and other states have taken a "carte blanche" approach to handing out laptops as part with the Digital Schooling Revolution, the DET rollout is "among the more systematic, automated and paperless" projects ever embarked upon.

Security smarts

At the physical layer, each netbook is password-protected and embedded with tracking software on the BIOS level from the machine.

That is administered through an enterprise services bus, which also connects the Remedy suite for asset management, Active Directory for authentication and Aruba's Airwave for wireless network management.

If a netbook were to be stolen or sold, the section can remotely disable it above the network. Even if the hard drive in the machine was swapped out or the operating program wiped, it would be useless to unauthorised users.

Already, it has noted the loss or damage of just six netbooks out of the 20,000 rolled out since August - and have tracked a teacher utilizing their device on a field trip in New Zealand.

While there is often a serial number and barcode on each computer,Office Professional 2010, the section said that thieves or college students might be able to remove them. To combat this, it is using passive RFID chips on every machine that will enable them to be identified "even if they were dropped in a bathtub".

Being passive, an RFID reader needs to be within close proximity in the device to read it. (Active RFID transmitted a signal back to base.)

The department used the AppLocker functionality within Windows seven to dictate which applications are installed.

Web access on the netbooks is filtered according to a company safety policy (employing McAfee's SmartFilter technology) plus an additional SOCKS-based proxy client, which provides web filtering with the network layer.

The devices also use Microsoft's Forefront Antivirus technology.

Upgrades

With such a huge fleet of computer systems in the hands of pupils, Wilson said it would be "unrealistic" for the section to offer technical support for software applications.

The netbooks were built so that the section can remotely upgrade and patch the devices more than a wireless network.

It used Microsoft's Method Centre Configuration Manager tool to distribute application down to devices.

The update service switches off once a university student finishes 12 months twelve.

Wilson said there was no way such a large fleet of devices could be managed at such low cost without the smarts embedded within Microsoft's new working method.

"There was no way we could do any of this on XP," he said. "Windows 7 nailed it for us."