During our data walks we are looking at data breach risks, in terms of 'Who has access to what data?'.  As part of our walk we may ask who has access to the school other than the employees and children attending, for example, Lettings.  As Lettings usually occur outside of the school working day, physical security can be overlooked or not thought about and so raises the risk of a data breach.  This article is launching our Lettings Checklist for schools which is shown at the end o

The UK Online Safety Bill became law on Thursday 26th October.  The UK Government says the Online Safety Act will protect people, particularly children, on the internet.  The Act should make social media companies keep the internet safe for children and give adults more choice over what they see online.  Ofcom will immediately begin work on tackling illegal content and protecting children's safety.

Moving MIS is a daunting task and is no small undertaking for a school. Moving to the cloud from a legacy system means that there are cyber security benefits but may be something new to your organisation. There is often the assumption that the new MIS porvider will seamlessly migrate the data for you, however there is a considerable amount of work that the school must do beforehand in order to make this happen.  This article provides some practical guidance and considerations.

We previously reported on some schools that had sufferred ransomware attacks, namely Thomas Hardye in Dorset.  It has since been discovered the attack was by the hacker group that goes by the name "Rhysida".  
The attack methodology used was by exploiting a known vulnerability in PaperCut.  Other schools have reportedly suffered the same attack from the group.

Computing Magazine recently reported about the ICO reprimanding seven organisation for domestic abuse breaches in the last 14 months.  A collection of public bodies, charitable organisations, law enforcers and lawyers have made personal data slips when handling domestic abuse cases in the last year, showig abusers where to find their victim is hiding.

The ICO have published a 10 step guide to sharing information to safeguard children or young people from physical, emotional or mental harm. 

The new guidance addresses concerns from organisations and frontline workers that may be scared to share information for fear of falling foul of data protection law.

The ICO has recently published new guidance about bulk email communications following a number of data breaches caused by the incorrect usage of CC and BCC (carbon copy and blind carbon copy). 

Emails sent to the wrong person or emails copied rather than blind copied to customers/parents are the most common data breaches seen and are often because someone is rushing or under pressure.

We've created a model Social Media Policy.  The policy outlines guidelines and expectations for the use of social media platforms by individuals and employees associated with an organisation. 

The primary aim of the policy is to ensure responsible, respectful and effective use of social media while protecting the organisation's reputation and interests.

Are you looking for some data protection training for your inset day(s) at the start of term?  Here are some ideas about how to raise awareness around data protection and cyber security for your staff. 

The training should be relevant, accurate and up to date. 

Microsoft has recently announced the planned retirement of the Microsoft A1 Licenses for Education.  According to Program Updates in Microsoft 365 for Education page the main reason is to limit storage.  Free, unlimited storage plans have become prohibitive and have become a large vector for security risks and fraud. 

We've produced a document to provide help and guidance in the event of a cyber attack.  The document is part of our Information and Cyber Security Best Practice Area and covers:

This document gives a list of who to contact and what to do just after a cyber attack.  It covers:

The DfE recently published an update to the Keeping Children Safe in Education Document 2025.  The document has a strong emphasis on making sure everyone is aware of the online dangers of using the internet and makes recommendations about how schools and colleges should put processes in place to keep children safe online.