SRE’s Digital Textbook strategy is reimagining the way 20,000 students and staff across 29 schools on the Portuguese island of Madeira access and interact with information.
The appeal is clear: students from early years through to secondary education can read, listen, or search through pages of content – personalising the learning experience and improving education outcomes.
With computers and tablets being the primary hub for learning, the browser became SRE’s largest attack surface. Securing the browser was therefore a core part of SRE’s zero trust efforts. SRE needed to:
- Safeguard student learning from threats: The security team needed a purpose-built solution that could protect work in the browser from threats.
- Defend against more sophisticated attacks: The risk of cyberattacks – such as those hiding in encrypted traffic and targeting the browser – was increasing.
- Simplify operations: SRE’s small security team was overwhelmed by manual security administration tasks – for example, responding to the large volume of connectivity helpdesk tickets.
- Protect students from harmful content: Online studying may expose students to obscene or harmful content that impacts their development and well-being. Systems lacking adequate measures to protect students may breach compliance requirements.
“We’re immensely proud of our Digital Textbook strategy, which is moving almost all education to the browser. As part of this strategy, we needed a simple, comprehensive platform to protect the browser workspace and ensure every student has secure access to web, SaaS, GenAI, and other applications.”
— Luís Gaspar
Director of Technology Services, SRE
Unprecedented granular control over every education device
SRE has standardised on Prisma Browser across 26 public and three private schools to protect every student and teacher from modern threats. Built for the modern education edge, Prisma Browser secures work across all the schools’ Samsung tablets and Chromebooks.
“Prisma Browser gives us unprecedented granular control over every device. We can decide precisely what students access, ensuring academic integrity,” says Luís Gaspar, Director of Technology Services, SRE.
-
Safeguards all levels of learning
![Almost 50,000 incidents per day blocked]( "Almost 50,000 incidents per day blocked")
In Madeira, Prisma Browser protects every stage of learning from early years all the way to secondary education. Right now, SRE is targeted by up to three incidents per student per day (almost 50,000 incidents, predominantly phishing attacks). Prisma Browser blocks every single one of these attacks.“Prisma Browser is the perfect fit for our schools. This secure browser solution prevents any web threat that might bypass other traditional threat detection and prevention methods,” says Luís.
-
Maximises security visibility and control
Luís and his team enjoy complete control over the work environment. For example, SafeSearch, which they can tailor to support different age groups, prevents students from searching for restricted or inappropriate content on YouTube and other sites.
Similarly, guardrails are in place to manage AI interactions directly within the browser, providing a secure environment for AI-powered workflows.
“It only takes a few clicks to decide what students access on their tablets at school and what they can browse at home,” says Luís.
-
Optimises agility and operational efficiency
![Minutes to set up personalised student browsing profiles]( "Minutes to set up personalised student browsing profiles")
Prisma Browser is liberating SRE’s small team to focus on strategic security tasks. For example, by removing complexity, the volume of helpdesk tickets has dropped by 99%.Moreover, individual profiles can be tailored remotely in the management console in just minutes – for instance, by enabling subtitles on YouTube videos for students who have hearing difficulties.
“We have cut the time spent managing SASE security by 60% using Prisma Browser. We can feed that time back into proactive, value-add security tasks,” says Luís.
-
Increases business agility
![Data collected from Prisma Browser is used to support security investigations performed by other Madeiran authorities]( "Data collected from Prisma Browser is used to support security investigations performed by other Madeiran authorities")
Prisma Browser was deployed in just one day to 20,000 students and staff. The browser’s cloud-hosted architecture streamlines implementation, providing immediate access to secure web and SaaS applications – without the need for traditional firewalls or an endpoint security platform.“Prisma Browser can be deployed incredibly quickly – one day in our case – especially if using mobile device management solutions,” says Luís.
In Madeira, Prisma Browser protects every stage of learning from early years all the way to secondary education. Right now, SRE is targeted by up to three incidents per student per day (almost 50,000 incidents, predominantly phishing attacks). Prisma Browser blocks every single one of these attacks.
Prisma Browser is liberating SRE’s small team to focus on strategic security tasks. For example, by removing complexity, the volume of helpdesk tickets has dropped by 99%.
Prisma Browser was deployed in just one day to 20,000 students and staff. The browser’s cloud-hosted architecture streamlines implementation, providing immediate access to secure web and SaaS applications – without the need for traditional firewalls or an endpoint security platform.share this story
