Secure Remote Learningin Education
Emergency school closures as a result of situations beyond our control,
such as floods, hurricanes, and the current COVID-19 pandemic, leave
many educational institutions with the challenge to maintain continuityof learning and teaching. Remote learning using digital tools helps keep
the students, faculty, and administrative staff connected in such times
to minimize the disruption for students and their education. However,there is an inherently increased risk to the privacy and safety of thesesessions and their participants, especially when remote learning
occurs over lesser controlled environments. Even when learning
distantly, most of the traditional classroom learning requirements
come into play, while at the same time requiring adherence to the local
and state laws and requirements. The need for secure remote accessand safe web filtering becomes vitally critical in such scenarios.

A Sophos Whitepaper May 2020

Secure Remote Learning in Education

Securing remote access with Sophos
Sophos XG Firewall and SD-RED devices offer schools and colleges multiple options for secure
remote connectivity. Students and teachers can access online learning tools that are mostly locatedin the cloud, or access file sharing applications, email, the internet, and other resources on theschool network securely and from any location.
XG Firewalls come with built-in support for IPsec and SSL VPN connectivity, allowing schools tochoose either or both. IPsec VPN comes with a free, easy-to-use VPN connection client, Sophos
Connect, that’s easy to deploy and configure, ensuring your students, faculty, and staff can connect
securely and with little effort.
Executives can take advantage of Sophos SD-RED (software-defined remote ethernet device) that
establishes a plug-and-play contact with XG Firewall for a dedicated VPN tunnel for secure access tosensitive corporate resources or to online SaaS resources. They can connect to the device directly, or
wirelessly through a Sophos APX wireless access point.
Schools can remotely connect with each other and to their headquarters within a district using
SD-WAN integrated into Sophos XG Firewall. SD-WAN allows them to securely share information
between sites; achieve consistent performance and availability for cloud applications like Dropbox
Education, G Suite, ClassDojo, and others; and deliver applications to keep pace with changing
educational technologies and apps on the network.
Not everyone has the option to use a corporate-owned device, and you may need to enable yourstaff and teachers to start using personal devices for work. Sophos Mobile lets you secure any
combination of personal and corporate-owned devices with minimal effort. Mobile devices can utilize
built-in or app-based VPN options, including IPsec and SSL VPN for secure connectivity to your XG
Firewall protected network.
With more chances of people working from home plugging new devices into their company laptops,
peripheral control in Sophos Intercept X allows you to control what employees can and can’t plug into
their corporate devices.

Securing remote connections
With sensitive information travelling back and forth between the firewall and remote devices overthe internet, ensuring traffic is secured from threats is critical. If your XG Firewall has a TotalProtect
Plus or FullGuard Plus license, traffic is scanned for ransomware, viruses, intrusions, and otherthreats in both directions, providing comprehensive protection. Sandstorm, Sophos’ cloud-sandbox
technology, inspects and blocks executables and documents containing executable content comingin through phishing, spam, and web downloads before the file is delivered to the user’s device.

Securing against web threats
Sophos XG Firewall’s Web Protection engine, backed by SophosLabs, includes advanced web
protection capabilities and innovative technologies like pharming protection, HTTPS scanning,and potentially unwanted app control, required to identify and block the latest web threats. Utilize
Sophos’ powerful, built-in web filtering policies for assistance with CIPA compliance and othereducation-specific features for SafeSearch and YouTube control.

A Sophos Whitepaper May 2020

Secure Remote Learning in Education

Unless your remote users are using VPN, you will need to ensure their safety on the internet by remotely
enforcing web filtering rules defined by your organization. The Web Control capabilities in Sophos
Intercept X stop risky file types being downloaded and block access to inappropriate websites.
Intercept X for Mobile also helps you keep students and staff safe on the web, stopping risky file types
being downloaded and providing category based web filtering for both Chromebooks and iOS devices.

Synchronizing security
When your remote device has an active Sophos Intercept X license, it can share real-time threat, health,and security information with XG Firewall via the Security Heartbeat™. If a remote device becomes
infected, XG Firewall isolates the device until it is cleaned, preventing the infection from moving laterally
to other devices on the network.

Identity and access control
Protect sensitive data, research, and other critical resources with Sophos XG Firewall’s user identitybased policies and unique user risk analysis that enable unprecedented next-gen control overapplications, web surfing, bandwidth quotas, and other network resources. Ensure access to criticalresources by only those who are authorized with two-factor authentication (2FA) support for access tokey system areas, including IPsec and SSL VPN, the user portal, and the web administration console.

Effortless remote set-up
Easily set up and protect employees who are working from home, even if they are a new user or using apersonal device, with the Sophos Central management platform.

Sophos ensures continuous education fromanywhere
Sophos’ unique IT security capabilities offer award-winning protection for schools and universities
to ensure that learning doesn’t stop in times when students are not able to access teachers andeducational resources face to face. Our remote access solutions are easy to deploy and configure andoffer a safe and speedy platform for students and faculty to continue to interact and collaborate while
maintaining safe social distance.

United Kingdom and Worldwide Sales
Tel: +44 (0)8447 671131
Email: sales@sophos.com

North American Sales
Toll Free: 1-866-866-2802
Email: nasales@sophos.com© Copyright 2020. Sophos Ltd. All rights reserved.
Registered in England and Wales No. 2096520, The Pentagon, Abingdon Science Park, Abingdon, OX14 3YP, UKSophos is the registered trademark of Sophos Ltd. All other product and company names mentioned aretrademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
2020-05-20 WPNA (NP)Australia and New Zealand Sales
Tel: +61 2 9409 9100
Email: sales@sophos.com.au

Asia Sales
Tel: +65 62244168
Email: salesasia@sophos.com