Expert How-tos and Best Practices for School Network Security

Schools manage an inordinate amount of information every day. From capturing academic records to accessing standardized syllabuses, it is easy to see how important school network security is.

Additionally, faculty members continually face the challenge of staying ahead of modern threats while delivering quality education to all students. Handling new enrollments requires resource allocation. While information access is vital for education, preventing misuse of institutional resources is equally critical.

Any entity handling personal information faces liabilities, and keeping student data private is very important. In schools or academic institutions with many individuals involved, networks often remain open to everyone. However, faculty and administrators have numerous options to secure networks while granting access to authorized users.

School Network Security Best Practices

Managing users and controlling access to information is a demanding task for IT operational engineers. In schools, this challenge is compounded significantly in cybersecurity efforts. Administrators must monitor authorized access, manage confidential information, and facilitate student access to necessary data for assignments securely.

Added to this is the need to ensure safe browsing on the internet using web filtering, to prevent students from accessing inappropriate sites or perform large downloads. In this scenario, a proactive and dedicated approach remains essential to avoid exploitation or misuse of the infrastructure.

Constraints With IT Infrastructure in Schools

Adopting new IT technology in schools remains a slow moving process. Infrastructure generally lags behind the “real-world” due to budget constraints, access to the latest expertise, as well as a “whatever works” way of dealing with issues. This is a natural response when overheads and limited budgets are available, while faculty still needs to provide a quality academic experience.

Outdated workstations, access points, and servers mean IT professionals need to make the most of what’s available. This could lead to network security flaws that open the institution up to exploitation and it could even cause an infrastructure collapse, if not addressed in the long-term.

Additional challenges include:

• Lack of expertise in new technology and its implementation requirements.
• Larger amounts of data and an increase in the number of enrolled students.
• Static or reduced budgets that require overheads to be trimmed.
• Rapid changes to processes and policies, requiring remodeling of workflows and information routing paths.

This doesn’t factor in the rising risk of active penetration attempts into the system from nefarious individuals seeking access to personal information. Clearly, multiple points of failure exist within academic institutions that require proactive and innovative solutions to overcome these challenges.

Moving to a Managed IT Services Solution Partner

While patches exist and talented IT professionals can get around the inherent challenges facing a school or institution, moving to a managed IT services provider may be the better option. Specifically, if you task your school’s IT personnel with oversight, process definition, and system monitoring instead of putting out daily fires, the entire organization will benefit.

Firstly, a predetermined budget means everyone knows what the total expenditure will be. Secondly, you can set limits on students’ use of the infrastructure using access control and consumption rules, meaning there’s less likelihood of abuse.

The biggest benefit is access to the latest technology solutions, equipment, and security expertise. With a managed IT service provider, you’ll reduce your infrastructure cost, ensure network security, and streamline the entire system’s processes to gain greater efficiencies.

Services that managed IT companies provide include:

• Advanced network security such as a VPN for school Wi-Fi networks.
• Web filtering for school networks that guarantee safe browsing on the internet.
• Consumption monitoring and user-based limits that prevent abuse.
• Hosted storage including document management applications with controlled workflows that ensure process efficiencies.
• Cybersecurity with modern threat protection solutions.
• Access to new hardware and devices regularly.
• Constant support and advice for IT service staff and faculty.
• Controlled access via authentication to both the system and devices deployed.

By securing every connected device on campus, encrypting the transmission of information, and monitoring the flow of data throughout the network, your IT staff can detect breaches early and take corrective action as quickly as possible.

School Network Security Experts

Kelley Create can improve your school’s workflows and provide the underlying hardware required to deliver the best service to your students while keeping everything secured. With data backed up, network security locked down, and consumption limited according to the institution’s policies, your faculty can focus on the important tasks, such as educating the youth of tomorrow.

Since 1974, Kelley Create has served the Pacific Northwest with expert consultants and access to the latest technological innovations. If your educational institution in Portland needs a technological revamp, get in touch with Kelley Create’s experts today.