Planning safe and effective technology solutions for your schools

Protecting the technology in your school is important for the privacy of the students along with confidential data and files.

With hundreds of different computers and students visiting various websites each day, it’s easy for viruses to lock up devices and/or lose data.

All it takes is one bad website or phishing email for a device to be compromised.

Cyberattacks aren’t just designed for stealing information, sometimes students or outsiders will hack devices to prevent taking a test or to disguise cheating.

If you plan ahead for cyberattacks with the technology solutions available in managed IT services, it will provide you with security and peace of mind knowing that you don’t have to be constantly checking devices for viruses.

It’s better to be prepared than to be too late. That is why we have compiled a list of best practices for protecting your school network and preventing disruptions with safe and effective technology solutions. 

Protecting Devices

Nowadays, many schools embrace technology and incorporate mobile computing into the standard curriculum.

Many schools issue devices to students so that they can work on presentations, homework, and take notes during classes. Many schools even allow students to take these home and work from anywhere.

This presents many opportunities for risk, especially over unsecured networks and websites for cyberattacks to happen. Set up safeguards so that only appropriate websites are accessible on the network.

One precaution that can be taken is to segregate administrative and guest networks.

If you implement a “guest” network for students, visitors, and staff members to connect to with their devices, you can set up safeguards so that only appropriate and secure websites are accessible on that network.

According to Hosting Tribunal, 73% of black hat hackers said traditional firewall and antivirus security is irrelevant or obsolete. 

Additionally, this works well because if you keep sensitive data on the administrative network, but only approved users can access, it will make traffic much easier to monitor. 

With managed IT services, you can set up these safeguards and networks without any hassle so your network is protected at all times.

Related Article: 6 Technology Issues Faced by the Education Sector and How to Solve Them

Gain Malware and Virus Protection

With school issued devices that can be taken home, users can connect to wireless networks from various places like hotels, cafes, airports, or home networks that aren’t private. This increases the risk of their computer being hacked and they are no longer protected from the security measures that your school may have in place.

 If you don’t carefully monitor your student’s and staff’s browsing or usage habits, all of the unmonitored activity causes the threat of cyberattacks to drastically increase. There’s the chance that the laptops or tablets themselves contain sensitive data and are more likely to get hacked on open networks.

Likewise, there is a possibility that if they come back to connect to the school network, they could be full of viruses or other malware.

Protect laptops and mobile devices while they are being used on other networks with remote filtering technology.

With managed remote filtering, all registered devices are forced to connect to the internet through a web security gateway.

This ensures that the traffic from these devices is subject to the web access and security policies of the organization, no matter where somebody logs on.

Services provided with Managed IT will help you install and monitor this system on your devices. Managed IT can also help you cut costs all while reducing risk for your school from experiencing an attack.

Receive Alerts When Needed

With managed IT solutions, we do our best to prevent emergencies but occasionally they still happen.

When they do, it’s best to be as prepared as possible. If you have efficient and quick communication, you can successfully navigate emergency situations safely.

With an emergency text alert system, instantly get in touch with as many people as possible when you need to share urgent information.

If there is a data breach or fraudulent email, which 75% of all attacked businesses reported fraudulent emails, you can instantly contact everyone within the network to take precautions and be aware of the potential risks.

Managed IT can help you monitor your network and spot these threats so that you can alert users within your network before it’s too late.

Plan Ahead and Protect Your School

Protecting your school from experiencing a cyberattack requires planning and implementing the right solutions.

With managed services from CTSI, ensure your school is protected, your IT needs are addressed and the risk of losing school data is low.

Reach out today and let us help you protect your school.