St Leo Case Study

Educating Students on P2P File Sharing

How Do You Stop the Music?

Challenge

The proliferation of hand-held music devices like iPods and other M3 players make it remarkably easy to customize on-demand music geared to the listening pleasure of students. Saint Leo University was concerned about the possibility that music shared across their network infringed on copyright legislation. The increasing volume of network traffic was also of paramount concern from a budgeting standpoint. After conducting a number of focus group meetings with the student community, it became apparent that students did not fully understand and appreciate the security risks and legal ramifications involved with sharing illegal music or video content..

Solution

The Impulse SafeConnect system provided a flexible and proactive solution to interactively communicate the detriments of illegal file sharing to the students of Saint Leo University, while providing a mechanism to encourage legal on-line music procurement. SafeConnect automated the process of ensuring that student computers were not configured as outbound file sharing servers, which was considered to be the main source of network traffic congestion throughout the campus. Students also benefited from SafeConnect’s ability to ensure that their anti-virus and anti-spyware definitions and Microsoft security patches were up-to-date. p>

SafeConnect Benefits

The Impulse SafeConnect™ system provides an open network access control (OpenNAC™) solution that easily integrates into vendor-diverse network environments. The inherent scalability advantages of SafeConnect’s distributed software architecture and managed support approach enables institutions to address their NAC enterprise requirements in a cost-effective manner.

SafeConnect OpenNAC offers an easy to implement and support endpoint policy management alternative that seamlessly connects into an institution’s existing multi-vendor infrastructure, and provides an evolutionary path to maturing NAC industry standards like IEEE 802.1x.

• Prevents unauthorized user access to wired, wireless, and VPN networks.
• Ensures users maintain compliance with anti-virus, anti-spyware, Microsoft security patches, P2P file sharing software, and custom endpoint security policies through real-time security posture validation.
• Automates the isolation of non-compliant devices at Layer2 using I-LAN quarantine technology and provides individualized remediation guidance independent of network switch hardware.
• Manages flexible role-based policies for students, faculty, staff, and guests.

i-LAN Quarantine Technology

Isolates non-compliant users from accessing Layer2 and Layer3 network resources and limits user access to designated internal or external remediation domains, where it communicates the actions required to become compliant with the institution’s endpoint security policies and regain network access.

“Impulse Point has proven to be a valuable partner in assisting us in balancing our network security and copyright concerns while maintaining our philosophy on student computing.”

Steven Burrell, CIO, Saint Leo University

About St. Leo University

Saint Leo University is a Catholic, coeducational, liberal arts university offering programs leading to associate and baccalaureate degrees and the Master of Business Administration, Master of Education, and Master of Criminal Justice degrees. Originally chartered in 1889, the institution responded in 1973 to requests from the armed services to offer degree programs on military bases. Today, Saint Leo University is one of the largest providers of higher education to military-related personnel in the United States. Saint Leo University has a total enrollment of more than 12,500—2,000 plus on its main campus, more than 7,600 students on military bases and community colleges in five states, and more than 3,300 students in their Center for Online Learning.