Are firewalls really needed?

Now I am starting to get worried. I had forgotten about this but my daughter mentioned that they were told before they were even given these laptops that they had webcams and I told her she is not to use it. First thing she done when she got home... look mum as she waves the laptop around with the webcam going... grrrr

Thats awesome isn't it (NOT)... a laptop with a webcam and no firewall... I feel a new epidemic coming on... the worry is not going to be surounding our children driving (crashing) their cars anymore, it will be our children exposed on line, it seems a new trend has begun with schools handing out laptops likes hotcakes.

I'm getting more and more upset. Just done a quick google on schools doing this sort of thing, and yes I found it. But apparently the school (in the example I found) was not doing anything wrong... how the heck does that work? These people are "IT professionals" and are meant to be trained in this especially.

It makes me wonder why we send our children to this place called school when it is up to the parents to educate them on such important things.

gemini2010 said:

Now I am starting to get worried. I had forgotten about this but my daughter mentioned that they were told before they were even given these laptops that they had webcams and I told her she is not to use it. First thing she done when she got home... look mum as she waves the laptop around with the webcam going... grrrr

Thats awesome isn't it (NOT)... a laptop with a webcam and no firewall... I feel a new epidemic coming on... the worry is not going to be surounding our children driving (crashing) their cars anymore, it will be our children exposed on line, it seems a new trend has begun with schools handing out laptops likes hotcakes.

I'm getting more and more upset. Just done a quick google on schools doing this sort of thing, and yes I found it. But apparently the school (in the example I found) was not doing anything wrong... how the heck does that work? These people are "IT professionals" and are meant to be trained in this especially.

It makes me wonder why we send our children to this place called school when it is up to the parents to educate them on such important things.

The worst part is the camera and mic can be turned on without you knowing it
Do what i did and cover both up with tape The real question is how much more will people take before it becomes very scarry, and very ugly?

the basic firewall is enough. just configure it.