What Education IT Professionals Can Learn at the 2017 CETPA Annual Conference

The use of technology in schools at both the K-12 and higher education levels has increased the abilities and reach of educators in multiple ways. Technology and digital learning assets have made it possible to create and monitor personalized learning curriculums that can target the individual needs of students, while online class offerings mean students are no longer constrained from getting the education they want by geographic location.

Harnessing the abilities of these technologies to maximize their use and their positive effects for students and educators is what CETPA is all about. Here’s an idea of what attendees can expect at this year’s conference.

2017 CETPA Annual Conference

The 2017 CETPA Annual Conference will be held from November 14th– 17th at the Pasadena Convention Center.

This event will bring together educators and superintendents, as well as IT professionals, network managers, CTOs, and more. This unique convergence of industry professionals will foster discussions about best practices for technology use in education, securing student and staff data, taking advantage of E-rate discounts, and building out the technical infrastructure schools require to sustain this increased use of technology.   

Fortinet is excited to be sponsoring and attending this event. We encourage attendees to visit with our team at booth number 423.  Additionally, Fortinet will be participating in multiple events and presentations to inform education IT professionals of best practices for securing their networks in the evolving threat landscape and protecting personal data with increased network visibility. 

As attendees plan their daily itineraries for the upcoming conference, here’s a snapshot of the talks and events Fortinet is hosting throughout the three-day event.

Demonstrations of E-rate Eligible Solutions and More

The Fortinet team will be providing demonstrations of our various E-rate eligible products at our booth, including:

• Enterprise Next-Generation Firewalls and Unified Threat Management
• Secure Access Wireless Access Points and Switches
• FortiCache Caching Solutions

In addition to learning how Fortinet can support the E-rate application process, attendees can see demonstrations of our Security Fabric, Competitive Testing, and our event management solution, FortiSIEM.  

Next-Generation Firewall Shootout

Thursday, November 16, 8:00-9:50am

This session gives event attendees the opportunity to compare three different next-generation firewall (NGFW) products. Fortinet will be showcasing our NGFW alongside representatives from Palo Alto Networks and Juniper Networks. After a brief demonstration and feature explanation from each vendor, CETPA attendees will have the chance to ask representatives clarifying questions, as well as get more in-depth product demonstrations.

Mitigating Evolving Cyber Threats at Schools

Schools are increasing their use of technology in every aspect of their operations, from blended learning and digital curriculums, to digital student and staff records. While these instances of technology use can increase operational efficiency for school administrators, and offer students unique, personalized learning opportunities, they also increase the attack surface for cybercriminals to gain entry into school networks.

To create a dialogue around current threats and threat trends we are seeing moving forward, Fortinet is hosting three security-based sessions to discuss mitigating current cyber threats, addressing future threats, and ensuring education IT professionals have the network visibility they need to be secure.

Mitigating Cybercrime: Weaving a Fabric of Security Visibility

Wednesday, November 15, 9:00-9:50am

This presentation will focus on the advanced persistent threats (APTs) targeting K-12 schools and the security challenges they face, which make it difficult to defend their networks. This will specifically address the security issues surrounding bring your own device policies, and the proliferation of the IoT. With prominent threats identified, there will then be a discussion on how to minimize these risks with a manageable security process enabled by a security fabric approach. Attendees will leave this presentation with a clear understanding of how to create a secure digital learning environment in which students, parents, and staff can feel confident in the security of their personally identifiable information.  

Combatting the Evolving Cyber Threat Landscape

Wednesday, November 15, 10-10:50am- Room 102 (Lab)

Cybercriminals are harnessing the power of automation and intelligence sharing to unleash new cyberattacks at a rapid pace. In addition to these new attack vectors, cybercriminals are also finding ways to capitalize on existing vulnerabilities. IT professionals have to be equally up-to-date in their security procedures for their defenses to keep pace with today’s cyberattacks. This presentation will discuss Fortinet’s research into common attack vectors to arm network security teams with the information needed to stay a step ahead of cybercriminals.

This discussion will leave attendees with the information they need to protect their networks from known vulnerabilities, as well as providing insight to the attacks we expect to see in 2018.

Creating a Transparent Information Network for Every School

Thursday, November 16, 8:00-8:50am

This session will focus on what education institutions need in a solution to be secure and compliant with regulations such as CIPA, especially as the use of Chromebooks in classrooms increases.  

Schools that provide these devices need security solutions that:

• Track users and session times
• Provide customizable authentication levels
• Generate user session reporting
• Integrate with existing systems
• Incorporate Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) integration with Google

Attendees at this talk will learn how to streamline management processes for Chromebooks while prioritizing security and compliance.

Final Thoughts

Educators and students alike have a lot to gain by incorporating the latest technology into their classrooms and curriculums. However, it’s important that as application use and endpoints increase, schools have the necessary security infrastructure to protect sensitive data from cybercriminals. We are looking forward to working with education IT professionals attending the CETPA Annual Conference to arm them with the tools and information they need to remain a step ahead of cybercriminals.

Let’s get a conversation going on Twitter! What security challenges are facing your school?