Becta closure - the impact upon school security

Becta Closure
Microscope.co.uk - UK - August 3, 2010-

Security community dissects impact of Becta closure

Neil Hollister, CEO of CRYPTOCard provides his comment on the impact of Becta closure.
With the closure of Becta announced by the government just weeks after the coalition took office, fears of the impact on schools' IT security have been rising, writes Amro Gebreel.
Acting as a provider of guidelines, there are now growing concerns that in the absence of Becta, schools will let policies lapse and expose themselves to potential problems.

We asked a panel of security industry specialists, if they think that the demise of Becta could be bad for schools security, because without a body recommending standards and practices school could end up falling foul of good security practices?
Ian Moyse, Webroot's EMEA Channel Director tells MicroScope that Webroot had been working closely with Becta over many months and were nearing certification.
Although the demise of Becta will not change the actual security Webroot provides, it strongly believes in the value of the validation and certification provided by independent organisations such as Becta, who focussed on specific security requirements for the education sector.

"Schools have an added challenge as compared to a corporate environment; not only that they are under as much threat from spam, malware and malicious content, but they also have higher responsibility to look after and protect the more susceptible users.

In addition, school computers are used by multiple users who have no personal ownership of any individual machine and thus are more likely to be relaxed about their usage. Security protection for children is paramount in this environment. The more independent security advice and guidance our education system can benefit from the better."

Oliver Hart, head of public sector sales at Sophos, says that Becta had many years' experience of working with schools, providing advice and strategy on the effective and innovative use of technology and highlighting areas of concern for educational establishments.

Sophos believes it is necessary to have an organisation focused on providing high quality ICT advice to schools, particularly at present when there is a move towards more free schools and academies with autonomy being directed more towards schools rather than traditional LEAs.

"Without this focus, there is a danger that a number of schools will have poor quality ICT security practices in place at a time when legislation and the level of threat is at the highest it has ever been.
At its worst, this could lead to loss of pupil data as well as a reduced availability of IT resources in the classroom."

Neil Hollister, CEO of CRYPTOCard agrees that Becta's advice on the need to secure remote access to IL3 data with 2 factor authentication was essential for schools.
With increasing remote access, whether from staff to access SIMS management data or from parents to access online reporting, the question of who is accessing this data is critical. The common password is the weakest link in IT security today and must be removed.

He asks how schools were to be educated and encouraged to do this without Becta?
Nick Billington, Managing Director, BitDefender UK, tells us that the huge popularity of certain technologies like social networking and mobile devices, combined with the challenge of controlling and monitoring access for user safety, highlights the huge challenge that schools face on a daily basis.

If you are concerned about your school's data security, contact one of our security advisors today.