College Selects ConSentry

MILPITAS, Calif. -- ConSentry(R) Networks, the leader in secure switching, announced today that Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary has selected the ConSentry LANShield(TM) solution to ensure regulatory compliance and provide security for its approximately 600 students, staff, and faculty. With a history dating back to 1921, and located in Ankeny, Iowa, since 1965, Faith Baptist offers biblical, vocational, and general undergraduate courses as well as graduate degrees in Pastoral Studies, Biblical Studies, and Theological Studies.

Because it stores records containing personal and medical information about its students, explains George Dougherty, chief technology officer at Faith Baptist, the school must comply with several kinds of federal regulations. One is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which safeguards the privacy of personal health information, and another is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which protects family and student educational information. While the school has not experienced any security issues, Dougherty wanted to provide the highest level of security to ensure compliance and protect the privacy of both student and school information. In his search for a LAN security solution, Dougherty tested several systems, only to find that they did not perform as claimed.

With ConSentry LANShield, however, "I was delighted to see that running all the traffic through the system had no impact on network speed," Dougherty stated. "All the features performed as promised - in both function and network speed." The LANShield solution will cover five dorms, eight apartment buildings, educational buildings, faculty offices, a combined convocation and gym/fitness center, and maintenance and technology offices - all of which incorporate a wide variety of wired and wireless configurations.

At the start of every school year, Dougherty's staff has traditionally checked every computer on campus for viruses and the presence of updated anti-virus software to prevent security problems."It was time intensive for our staff, and it took two to three weeks for us to get people onto the network," said Dougherty. "We had unhappy students, faculty, and staff because of the lack of connectivity. Plus, since everyone uses laptops now that connect from all sorts of locations, that initial check is an exercise in futility since anyone surfing the Internet can pick up viruses in real time."

ConSentry Networks Inc.