Education Today Education Today Magazine
Cyber Security, in Plain English.
All too often it seems we’re reading about the latest school that has fallen victim to a cyber-attack, leaving headteachers, managers, teachers, staff, and students in chaos.
Disruption to schools caused by attacks can require a significant amount of recovery time to re-enable critical services, student records, financial information, and personal details.
One school which recently experienced an attack had to work with the Department for Education, their local council, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and Action Fraud, together with cyber security organisations to get their systems back online safely and securely. This can sometimes take days and in some cases weeks.
In October 2022, the DfE published new Cyber Security Standards for Schools advising them to make it a priority to review their internet and network protection. Schools Broadband have collated some useful links to resources to help with this, plus links to free cyber security training resources for school staff developed by the DfE and NCSC.
Dr Ian Levy, Technical Director, at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) says that organisations need to have better systems and technology in place to demotivate the cyber adversaries, thwart attacks and protect networks.
Schools Broadband, the specialist internet service provider for schools, provides schools and MATs with a security service that does just that. The service provides an affordable yet higher grade security solution, allowing schools to connect any number of sites, regardless of their location, to the Schools Broadband robust security platform, protecting schools from the severest of attacks.
Their hosted service means schools can benefit from some of the best security in the world at an affordable price point for education. Being hosted means the system does not require any maintenance, management or upgrade costs, ever. It also means when it comes to managing and understanding security technology, schools can rely on the Schools Broadband security experts to take care of everything. The cloudhosted service allows Schools Broadband to control their virtual firewalls from their UKbased headquarters, but for organisations who prefer to maintain control of their own firewalls, this is also possible with the Schools Broadband service.
Schools Broadband are security experts who provide a world-renowned hosted Fortinet security service with 24/7/365 monitoring and support. Protecting schools since 2007, they have been awarded ISPA Best Security and Cloud Service five times, one of the highest accolades in the industry.
Unlike other security providers, Schools Broadband also provides advanced Anti DDoS Protection as standard, currently one of the biggest risks to schools. DDoS threats pose significant risks to the functioning of school networks. Attacks overwhelm a network with a flood of traffic, rendering it inaccessible to legitimate users. Since the implementation of their Anti DDoS Protection in 2019, no Schools Broadband customer has ever suffered an outage due to a DDoS attack.
School internet connections and networks require full unified threat management that provides real-time protection. That includes protection against advanced persistent threats, intrusion prevention, anti-virus, Ransomware, email filtering and application control. The Schools Broadband hosted Fortinet Firewalls and Unified Threat Management service covers all of the above and is able to identify and contain new attacks in a matter of seconds.
Having the ability to restore systems and recover data from backups is also standard guidance from the DfE and NCSC. Visit the Schools Broadband website to find out more. Schools Broadband is a leading provider of internet security and web filtering for education and has been awarded “Best Security and Best Cloud Services” five times by the Internet Service Providers Association.
To discuss best value internet connectivity, filtering and safeguarding monitoring plus security for your school or MAT, in a language you can understand, contact a member of the Schools Broadband team. We’re happy to help:
01133 222 333
info@schoolsbroadband.co.uk
www.schoolsbroadband.co.uk