Texas school district issues laptops to students, but not before making sure they're equipped with filtering, firewall, and virus protection

By Bridget McCrea

Students at two Laredo Independent School District middle schools became the lucky recipients of 3,000 laptops last year, thanks to a PIP grant that funded the purchase of the Dell computers. Used during the school day, the laptops are also toted home at night, allowing students to use them for both educational study and leisure. It's the latter that led the school district to take one additional step before handing out the machines: equip them with filtering, antivirus and firewall protection that would keep both computer and user secure in the unpredictable online world....

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ACLU Contests Cell Phone Policy at Colorado High School

The American Civil Liberties Union last month challenged the actions of the Monarch High School in Lafayette, CO, after school administrators confiscated a sophomore's cell phone after a school security officer accused him of smoking and parking in the wrong lot....

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Fort Worth Voters Decide on School Surveillance Systems

Fort Worth voters approved a bond package last week that includes $7.3 million to install video surveillance systems throughout the school district. Another $29 million of the $593.6 million school renovation bond would go toward a range of security and fire safety projects to bring every campus up to current building codes....

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Nashville District To Test Face Recognition Security

Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools in December will become the first school district in the United States to use security cameras with face-recognition technology, according to a report in USA Today....

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Fremont Bolsters Web Security with Blue Coat Appliance

As part of its 2007-2008 technology goals, Fremont School District in California had deployed appliances from Blue Coat Systems to improve Web security and reduce bandwidth consumption. The district is also using the Blue Coat ProxySG appliances to provide Web security and policy control across its Internet gateway....

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Web 2.0 Entails 'Sleeping Giant' Security Risk

As increasing numbers of enterprises climb aboard the Web 2.0 bandwagon, it's more important than ever for software developers keep security in mind during the development process. So says Danny Allan, director of security research at Watchfire, the Waltham, Mass.-based Web-app security company acquired by IBM in July. Allan was in Santa Clara, Calif. to speak at this year's AjaxWorld show, and he took a few minutes to talk with me before his presentation....

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Florida District Holds K-12 Computer Security Workshop

The School District of Lee County in southwestern Florida last week held a workshop for students, teachers, and parents on Internet safety, including the dangers of cyber bullying, stalking, and impersonation....

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