School ICT News Bulletin No. 220 - 24/05/2013

Published by ICT Shared Services

Encrypted emails from Norfolk County Council

You may have started to receive encrypted emails from Norfolk County Council departments to your schools Generic email accounts.

When Norfolk County Council send an email to a generic email account in a Norfolk school the email is encrypted during transit but arrives unencrypted. If the email is then forwarded over the public internet to a personal email account, or a Norfolk Schools Google NSIX account, it is not protected from unauthorised access.

This also applies if you are sending sensitive information to Norfolk County Council (@norfolk.gov.uk) email addresses.  Emails sent from generic email accounts are secure when sending sensitive information to Norfolk County Council accounts because they do not traverse the public internet, whereas the Google NSIX email accounts are safe but not secure because they do traverse the internet.

More information about sending emails from school is available here

Given the frequent sensitive nature of emails sent from Norfolk County Council departments to Norfolk schools we often use Norfolk County Council's secure email service (SPX) so that the email is still protected even if forwarded on.

The link below will take you to a user guide which explains how to use the encrypted mail service should you receive an encrypted email.

Norfolk County Council encrypted email user guide

Please remember that care must be taken when forwarding any email to Norfolk Schools Google NSIX or personal email accounts that the data within the document is not sensitive.  The below link takes you to the 8 key principles of data protection.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisations/data_protection/the_guide/the_principles.aspx

If you have any queries with regards to any of the above please contact ICT Shared Services Service Desk ict@norfolk.gov.uk or 0845 303 3003

Author: Rob Price

IMPORTANT INFORMATION - Powering Off Core Network Equipment Over The Half Term Break

We would like to ask schools to refrain from turning off the power to the core networking equipment over the Half Term break. Core networking equipment includes routers, switches and cache servers, often in a wall or floor cabinet. These devices are monitored by ICT Shared Services and BT and turning off the power results in false alarms. This could result in your school incurring a charge for an engineer visit.

Services Affected:                          Schools Internet, email and any service accessed via the internet

Services Not Affected:                  All other school systems which do not require access to the internet

When:                                                27^th May 2013 – 31^st May 2013

What You Need To Do:

If there is no alternative to powering off the communications cabinet and core equipment then please contact ICT Shared Services Service Desk to advise us in advance

For More Information:

Please contact the ICT Shared Services Service Desk ict@norfolk.gov.uk or 0845 303 3003

Created on: 22/05/2013 11:18:42