Jisc and KHIPU Networks Announce a Revised Managed Firewall Service for The Jisc Community

UK digital, data and technology agency Jisc, in partnership with leading education sector cyber security specialist KHIPU Networks, are delighted to announce their enhanced managed firewall service (MFS), specifically designed for UK colleges, universities, research centres and the public sector.

After its launch last year, Jisc and KHIPU have worked closely to develop the service, which was created in direct response to requests from the education sector for a globally managed firewall service which would provide intelligent advanced threat protection to all organisations connected to the Jisc-run national research and education network, Janet.

Education sector cyber security specialists KHIPU Networks, were the clear choice to provide the enhanced managed firewall service to the Jisc community, not only due to their stellar reputation for firewall deployments but also given their knowledge of the education and research sector, having collaborated with other Jisc cyber security projects and purchasing frameworks.

The service, which has been dubbed internally ‘The Jisc Community Firewall Service’ due to its unique proposition of pooling the combined threat intelligence feeds of all firewalls in the Jisc eco-system and applying global patches to all members’ technology, is run by Jisc and powered by KHIPU using Palo Alto Networks Next Generation Security and promises to help those connected to the Janet network to stay protected amidst an increasingly complex cyber threat landscape.

Guy Jermany, Chief Information Officer at KHIPU, said:

“Having listened to the Jisc community, we have refreshed the MFS with a view to meeting the ever-changing, mission-critical cyber security requirements of further and higher education institutions and research facilities.

“These enhancements will not only improve the sector’s overall cyber security posture, but they also empower institutions to take as little or as much control as they like over their firewall environments, in partnership with KHIPU’s highly experienced cyber security experts, to simultaneously maximise protection and minimise risk.”

Key elements of the managed and co-managed firewall service include:

• A flexible, partnership-driven approach to the management of firewall investments, which enables in-house IT teams to make changes with the support of KHIPU’s cyber security experts, who operate as an extension of Jisc members’ teams.
• Leveraging Jisc’s community threat intelligence feeds with automation ensures that members’ firewall security configurations are proactively updated with the latest protection, leading to a significant and ongoing improvement to their cyber security posture.
• A catalogue of new security services that ensure that member’s firewall investments and security capabilities are maximised including 24×7 threat monitoring, alerting and protection.

Commenting on the MFS update, Jisc’s head of security, David Batho, said:

“A key component of any cyber security strategy, a well-configured firewall helps to detect and mitigate potential threats.

“Our service has been created and developed to meet the specific needs of the tertiary education and research sectors and takes advantage of Jisc’s access to wide-ranging threat information.

“In line with feedback from members, we have taken a flexible approach and members and customers now have options, depending on the level of support they require: a fully managed firewall, or a co-managed service, including virtual options to support cloud infrastructure.

“Whichever option is chosen, the managed firewall service is proactively maintained, patched and configured, saving IT and security staff time and giving peace of mind.”

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