Basic school cybersecurity tips you may sometimes overlook

Surprising as it may seem, educational institutions have some of the weakest cybersecurity when it comes to protecting their data. That is hard to believe, given the type of information they hold about both students and parents. Fortunately, there are modern alternatives such as educational software that centralize this information and shield it properly.

Schools should not overlook data protection, since they handle sensitive data such as:

• Health
• Academic
• Psychological
• Financial
• Personal and professional
• Other sensitive data

This makes it essential to have educational software that improves schools' cybersecurity, so both students and their parents can be assured that the information they provide will be used correctly and no one will misuse it.

It is truly important for schools to raise their awareness of data protection; otherwise, they may be affected both internally and externally, and both could seriously damage their reputation and finances if they are forced to pay fines or penalties.

That is why we will take a closer look at what schools may be overlooking today and how they can fix it.

Why does cybersecurity matter for schools?

Now more than ever, schools need a very high level of cybersecurity, because it is how educational institutions can care for and protect their main asset: data.

In addition, under Ley 1581 of 2012, Colombia's Personal Data Protection Law, schools must ensure that the sensitive data they store in their systems (mostly belonging to minors) is well protected in order to avoid fines or penalties.

In a school's day-to-day work, teachers and administrators often handle attendance lists, grades or psycho-educational data that are not properly safeguarded because they are printed or stored in simple spreadsheets.

That is why it is necessary to understand how important cybersecurity is for this kind of academic institution and to highlight why educational software is the best solution they can adopt.

What are the most common cybersecurity threats schools face?

The main threats to a school's cybersecurity are a lack of knowledge about the subject and the wide availability of tools that can be used to breach a system.

The most common include social hacking and DoS or malware attacks, which intruders use to get what they want: data.

Specifically, social hacking tries to manipulate the outcomes of social behavior through orchestrated actions; its general purpose is to gain access to restricted information.

These attacks are very common in schools, and there have even been well-known cases, such as one in March 2019 in which some students were accused of hacking a school information platform in order to change their grades and improve their attendance records.

This shows that a school can be breached even by its own students. Young people are curious, and today they have many more technology tools and much more knowledge about cybersecurity.

Although their reasons for breaking through their school's security may be “innocent,” the impact on schools' reputation is very significant.

Moreover, families and society are increasingly aware of data protection, so the theft or alteration of information by a student or any other outside user not only makes the school look vulnerable, but can also lead to lawsuits from parents or even legal penalties.

Tips to help a school raise its level of cybersecurity

A school's data should be a shared responsibility in which school leaders and the IT department play the leading roles. However, each department head must also secure the data under their responsibility.

For example, teachers must safeguard their gradebooks, the finance department must protect money management, and the admissions and registration department must protect the personal and sensitive data of staff, students and parents.

However, departments are not always aligned or communicating well, which can lead to neglected security at institutions.

There is now a set of best practices that the IT department can put into operation at the institution. These include:

1. Running an awareness campaign on the importance of handling information properly.
2. Making sure the institution's critical processes, such as academic planning, recording and viewing grades, billing, collections, accounts receivable and communications, are carried out on a single platform.

The latter requires a degree of digitalization in which all of an educational institution's data is stored securely on a single platform, such as educational software.

How does educational software help schools strengthen their cybersecurity?

Although many schools today may use different types of digital solutions, these are usually not integrated and do not cover every need that must be addressed to guarantee data protection.

That is why educational software such as Phidias is the most complete solution, as it enables proper information management across the school community.

In line with all the good practices highlighted above, Phidias has dedicated tools to put them into practice, including:

• Two-step authentication.
• Single Sign-On with Google or Office 365.
• Options to set password strength levels: weak, medium or strong.
• Reminders to change passwords periodically.
• Assignment of roles and permissions, so each user can only access the information relevant to them, preventing misuse of information that could affect the school community.

Best of all, if someone is trying to break into a user's account, the platform sends an email notification and, if the attempts continue, the targeted user account is locked automatically.

In addition, Phidias educational software runs in the cloud on Amazon's infrastructure, which provides robust support for the school. It also has security certificates that give peace of mind to the school and its users.

To learn more about the Phidias modules and the other tools and solutions this educational software offers, we invite you to get in touch with us.

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