Miami-Dade Renews Desktop Security

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Miami-Dade Public Schools, the fourth-largest school district in the nation, is implementing new security measures to protect its 90,000 desktops and 50,000 e-mail accounts from spam, viruses, worms, spyware, and unwanted applications.

The district, which serves more than 350,000 students, has switched from McAfee to Sophos, which it will use for the next four years, along with Sophos Professional services to help smooth the transition from its legacy desktop protection to the new system.

Miami-Dade decided on Sophos, which specializes in K-12 and higher education security needs, after more than a year of evaluating various security options. The decision-making criteria included:

  • Breadth of coverage;
  • Detection speed;
  • Impact on performance;
  • Speed and frequency of updates; and
  • Technical support quality.

Another key factor that helped the district render its decision was Sophos' "simplified management capabilities and proactive, multi-tier protection across our entire district," said Thomas Sims, director of network services for Miami-Dade's Office of Information Technology, in a prepared statement.

The two Sophos elements in play at Miami-Dade are Sophos Endpoint Security, which protects laptops, desktops, and severs from threats, while providing centralized management; and PureMessage, which scans all incoming messages for spam, viruses, spyware, and other e-mail security threats.

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About the author: David Kopf is a freelance technology writer and editor and can be reached at [email protected].

Have any additional questions? Want to share your story? Want to pass along a news tip? Contact Dave Nagel, executive editor, at [email protected].

About the Author

David Kopf is a freelance technology writer and marketing consultant, and can be reached at [email protected].

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