Comment The Sith Lord Speaks (Score 1) 334
Darth Shapiro here. To Corvi42: Thank you! You gave me the only good laugh out of this entire less than totally credible experience.
Now, here's the reality. Our network is used for both educational and administrative purposes. Admittedly, it's not very tight, and we're working on it. There's a dearth (not Darth) of good security talent out this way, as most folks head for the megalapoli. Anyone want to volunteer some expertise?
Because it's used for admin it carries student data, which puts it under the Federal Electronic Records Protection Act (FERPA) and the Childrens Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA).
Most threats aren't from outside, though. Stats say the worst security risks come from within. THAT's why I have to take a hard line against rogue environments (doesn't matter what type. If you set up an Apple IIe with port sniffer capability I have to come after you). Because it's a clear violation of FERPA and against the district's Appropriate Use Policy (Federally mandated, Board approved), my recommendation HAS to be the severest penalty available, usually termination. Anything else opens the district to legal liability from the community or the Feds.
Another poster had a good chuckle over the idea of firing teachers, by the way. He's absolutely right. A teacher would just about have to commit and be convicted of a felony before we could fire them, and of course IT has no control there. All I do is present the facts and supporting evidence to our Personnel people along with my recommendation and they take it from there. In a corporate environment, no such barriers exist.
By the way, when it comes to user requests for non-standard items I never say no, except when the proposal compromises network integrity or security. Then I have to. Anything else, I say, "sure, but I have 6 people for 1,000 administrators and teachers, 6,700 kids, and 2,600 machines at eleven physical sites. Support's gonna be sketchy at best". The trick is, you have to talk to us first!
Also by the way, we use Gigabit Ethernet on the backbone at the high school and two elementaries, with Fast Ethernet classroom drops. The other schools are either Ethernet or Token Ring, being upgraded as time and budget permit. Our Internet access is broadband at up to 33 Mbps, which makes us the fastest district on a student/megabit basis in the state, possibly the country. Every computer in the district has Internet access, so don't be dissing East Tennessee.
I'm not anti-Linux either. World reality is that MS is ruler of the corporate roost, at least for now, so most (not all) of our desktops are Win9X. The computer science program at the high school uses Mandrake something or other, and I use Storm 7 on some IBM Netfinities that are too finicky to run anything else. Most of the servers are NetWare, because all we need is file and print along with *enterprise-wide* directory services, and it's cheap because we buy the Novell SLA at $2 per student per year.
We're also using Win2000 with Terminal Services a lot, and will more in future. Thin client/terminal server will simplify life for everyone and save us a lot of support time and money.
Please don't assume that I'm an evil slime because of a single qoted line in a short article, even though the quote was entirely correct. You have to know the CONTEXT to understand the total reality. This will be my only post on the topic. The personal insults are beneath the notice of any rational, reasonable person.
Respectfully submitted,
Jeff Shapiro
Now, here's the reality. Our network is used for both educational and administrative purposes. Admittedly, it's not very tight, and we're working on it. There's a dearth (not Darth) of good security talent out this way, as most folks head for the megalapoli. Anyone want to volunteer some expertise?
Because it's used for admin it carries student data, which puts it under the Federal Electronic Records Protection Act (FERPA) and the Childrens Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA).
Most threats aren't from outside, though. Stats say the worst security risks come from within. THAT's why I have to take a hard line against rogue environments (doesn't matter what type. If you set up an Apple IIe with port sniffer capability I have to come after you). Because it's a clear violation of FERPA and against the district's Appropriate Use Policy (Federally mandated, Board approved), my recommendation HAS to be the severest penalty available, usually termination. Anything else opens the district to legal liability from the community or the Feds.
Another poster had a good chuckle over the idea of firing teachers, by the way. He's absolutely right. A teacher would just about have to commit and be convicted of a felony before we could fire them, and of course IT has no control there. All I do is present the facts and supporting evidence to our Personnel people along with my recommendation and they take it from there. In a corporate environment, no such barriers exist.
By the way, when it comes to user requests for non-standard items I never say no, except when the proposal compromises network integrity or security. Then I have to. Anything else, I say, "sure, but I have 6 people for 1,000 administrators and teachers, 6,700 kids, and 2,600 machines at eleven physical sites. Support's gonna be sketchy at best". The trick is, you have to talk to us first!
Also by the way, we use Gigabit Ethernet on the backbone at the high school and two elementaries, with Fast Ethernet classroom drops. The other schools are either Ethernet or Token Ring, being upgraded as time and budget permit. Our Internet access is broadband at up to 33 Mbps, which makes us the fastest district on a student/megabit basis in the state, possibly the country. Every computer in the district has Internet access, so don't be dissing East Tennessee.
I'm not anti-Linux either. World reality is that MS is ruler of the corporate roost, at least for now, so most (not all) of our desktops are Win9X. The computer science program at the high school uses Mandrake something or other, and I use Storm 7 on some IBM Netfinities that are too finicky to run anything else. Most of the servers are NetWare, because all we need is file and print along with *enterprise-wide* directory services, and it's cheap because we buy the Novell SLA at $2 per student per year.
We're also using Win2000 with Terminal Services a lot, and will more in future. Thin client/terminal server will simplify life for everyone and save us a lot of support time and money.
Please don't assume that I'm an evil slime because of a single qoted line in a short article, even though the quote was entirely correct. You have to know the CONTEXT to understand the total reality. This will be my only post on the topic. The personal insults are beneath the notice of any rational, reasonable person.
Respectfully submitted,
Jeff Shapiro
