Australian IT innovator Netbox Blue has won a prestigious Consensus Software Award for its internet and email management solution for the education sector. The SecurED solution helps schools deliver their duty of care to internet-enabled students by giving them the tools to control internet access, help prevent cyber bullying and manage laptop use inside and outside the classroom.
The Consensus Awards, which are in their 11th year, recognize the most innovative software in Australia and New Zealand. The awards were announced and presented by Senator Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy last night (Tuesday 29th June) at the Amora Jamieson Hotel in Sydney.
The awards are endorsed and supported by Austrade, NZ Trade & Enterprise, Australian Computer Society and New Zealand Computer Society and are sponsored by IBM.
Netbox Blue Chairman, John Fison, described the award as a great honour for the company.
“Netbox Blue is dedicated to innovation,” Mr Fison says. “We are constantly evolving our products to meet new digital threats and the demands of our clients. And the award recognizes the success we’re enjoying.
“SecurEd is widely used by schools across Australia to protect internet-enabled students and teachers and to reduce the work load on IT managers. Our solution stands out from the market because it is easy to use, effective and has many unique features.”
Netbox Blue recently announced a world first in the battle against cyber bullying with the release of SafeChat. SafeChat is a unique piece of technology which helps schools prevent bullying on the most popular social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter, by blocking inappropriate language. SafeChat can be used at school and on school-owned laptops, even when they are used outside the network. It can also be used in a business environment to tackle cyber harassment.
“SafeChat is particularly valuable because it offers schools control over the one area that has been outside their control in the past – social networking sites, instant messaging, chat sites and webmail,” Mr Fison says.
SafeChat is the result of tens of thousands of hours of development by staff at Brisbane-based Netbox Blue. SafeChat scans the traffic stream on popular Web 2.0 applications against a highly customisable list of keywords to determine if the stream should be blocked and logged or allowed through. Policies can be set to determine what action will be taken if a keyword is used. Offensive material can be blocked and an administrator and parents automatically informed.
SafeChat extends the anti-cyber bullying features of the Netbox, which already provides content scanning on internal and external email. Netbox solutions include a range of security and internet and email filtering and management features in one easy-to-use appliance.
One of Queensland’s largest independent schools, John Paul College, is one of the first to make use of the new cutting-edge technology. SafeChat is deployed on the school network and on the school’s 2000 laptop computers. If a student uses inappropriate language in an email or on a Facebook account, SafeChat detects it, blocks the offending words and alerts the school the instant it occurs.
Kathryn Priol, Director of ICT at John Paul College says Netbox Blue’s technology enables the school to protect students in a way that simply was not possible before.
“The chances of a cyber bullying incident occurring are now greatly reduced, which is reassuring for students, staff and parents,” Ms Priol says.
Mr John Fison and Mr Trent Davis accepted the award in Sydney
For more information about the awards, please click here.
For more information on Netbox Blue's unique product offering, email sales [at] netboxblue [dot] com or call 1300 737 060.
