The emPSN network is routed through the Joint Academic Network (Janet) and as part of this connection, schools can benefit from a suite of world-class cyber security protections developed by Jisc, the UK’s leading provider of digital services for education, at no extra cost.
These security features which are known collectively as Critical Services Protection, enable you to meet or exceed the DfE standards, help you avoid crippling DDoS attacks, and maintain business continuity – giving you peace of mind.
Cyber attacks on the public sector, including schools and trusts, are becoming more common and sophisticated. Government data shows that 52% of Primary Schools and 71% of Secondary Schools identified a breach or attack in 2023, indicating that public sector organisations do not stand apart from typical businesses in terms of the kinds of incidents reported.
This means it’s never been more important to take a layered approach to defending your core systems. Critical Services Protection (CSP) is a collection of features included in your emPSN broadband package. CSP works around the clock, providing fast and focused responses designed to defend the network and protect your whole school community or organisation.
Connectivity via the Janet Network
Your school benefits from a private, uncontended network developed exclusively for the education and research sectors. Connecting via Janet provides unmatched built-in cyber security and benefits from over 600+ direct peerings, including Microsoft and the BBC, meaning your traffic never hits the public internet.
Foundation level of DDoS Mitigation
This detects and filters Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on your Janet connection, helping to maintain connectivity including cloud-hosted resources that may be crucial to your organisation.
If an alert is triggered, traffic is filtered and re-routed using carefully selected criteria, allowing appropriate business-as-usual traffic to flow safely to and from your site’s network.
Janet Network Resolver Service
Incorporating the latest in advanced DNS protection, the Janet Network resolver service is designed to meet your performance and capacity needs. Using Response Policy Zone (RPZ) technologies, the service reduces the risk of a user’s web requests being directed to compromised or dangerous websites (for example as a result of phishing or related attacks).
Jisc’s CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team)
Jisc’s internal team are the first line of defence against cyber threats, providing centralised coordination of reported security incidents. The CSIRT monitors and resolves any incidents, with specialists tracking a range of platforms including Unix, Linux and Windows.
They can also help if you believe a site has been flagged as malicious and blocked incorrectly, assisting in removing the block. Jisc estimates these instances (called false positives) to be less than 0.5% of all blocks.
Primary Nameserver Service
This service holds and maintains the main source of domain name information. It allows emPSN to publish and manage your DNS records on a central nameserver through a secure web portal or request Jisc to make changes. It is supported by secondary nameservers to provide high availability, giving added peace of mind. Crucially, this helps you maintain business continuity including web presence and email, even if your internet connection is down following a ransomware attack or other issue.
Allow and Deny Lists
DNS Allow and Deny lists identify known sources of email abuse or ‘good’ email servers that you want to let through. This service allows you to access Jisc’s comprehensive Allow and Deny Lists in order to protect your organisation’s users from email abuse.
A Centrally Managed Firewall
emPSN partners with Fortinet, a global leader in cyber security technology. Fortinet Fortigate Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW) is the world’s most deployed network firewall, delivering unparalleled threat protection against malware, exploits and malicious websites in both encrypted and non-encrypted traffic.
emPSN offers the FortiGate Next-Generation Firewall 80F Series which delivers coordinated, automated, end-to-end protection. The 80F automatically controls, verifies and facilitates user access to applications, with a simple to use and optimised user experience.
emPSN can offer this firewall at no extra cost, or customers can choose to continue with their existing service with another supplier.
Find out more and discuss your bespoke requirements.
