Sent on behalf of CTAG (Cyber Technical Advisory Group), which incorporates both National and local public sector cyber security leads
We wanted to take the opportunity to write to you to underline the importance of protecting information.
As professionals and school governor volunteers in the education environment, we have a responsibility to protect the personal and sensitive information of staff, colleagues, and our pupils. You may have read in the news recently that there have been a number of cyber attacks that have been reported, some of which have affected schools and nurseries. This is not intended to be scaremongering, but rather to highlight something that is a fact of everyday life. The good news is that there are some simple steps that can be taken to make it far harder for attackers to gain access and to prevent them from stealing information. One of the main things we recommend is something known as Multi-Factor Authentication, commonly known as MFA.
MFA is typically a simple application that is on your mobile phone or another device. Implementing MFA makes it so much harder for attackers to gain access to your accounts. This step prevents attackers from gaining access through them to personal sensitive information stored on networks and local services/systems.
There are also a number of free-to-use training tools from the National Cyber Security Centre, the NCSC. We have included some links to those training materials and to the advice and guidance below.
We do recognise that it’s not always appropriate or necessary for staff to have their mobile phones with them in the classroom when logging into their systems. If this is a particular problem, then alternative methods to achieve the necessary security will need to be thought of.
We hope that you can discuss this at one of your governor meetings and decide to take positive action in implementing MFA within the school. Any feedback that you may have would be greatly appreciated (please send to ict@norfolk.gov.uk) and will ensure that we can help support you to achieve better security in your schools.
Mark Brett (CTAG) and ICT Solutions