(Primary, Secondary, and Post-16 Education)
The NEBRC works to support educational IT managers, headteachers, and governors across the North East and Yorkshire with cyber security.
One multi-academy trust (MAT) recently approached the NEBRC following concerns that neighbouring schools in their county had suffered ransomware attacks. The MAT was due an OFSTED inspection and wanted to be able to demonstrate that they were protecting the data of staff and pupils.
The NEBRC worked collaboratively with the MAT’s IT staff and technology providers to deliver professional security assessments. Over several days the NEBRC students, while heavily supervised by industry professionals, used a raspberry Pi to connect to the Trusts network. This meant that they could conduct their assessment work remotely and securely. While assessing the school network, the students identified risks, including the ability to remotely disrupt the power supplies to critical servers and gaining unauthorised access to admin accounts and CCTV systems, which clearly could have had significant impacts on teaching and learning.
Following the assessment, the team created a report for the head teacher and governors with a clear red, amber, and green action plan to address the riskiest areas. This report was tailored with an executive summary for school leaders and governors, and a technical section for the IT team/technology providers. The school has now acted on the report and, as a result, can demonstrate to OFSTED, parents and their staff that they have undertaken independent security testing and that the network is much safer than it was.
In addition, the student team has since delivered bespoke security awareness training to all school staff via an hour’s online input on a CPD day. This training has helped teachers to understand the motivations of hackers and how to defend against common cyber-attacks such as phishing.
All of this and more was achieved within limited school budgets. The NEBRC was able to keep costs incredibly low by subsidising security assessments. NEBRC students were able to gain invaluable hands-on experience in security testing, making them highly employable post-graduation.
If you want to discuss your cyber security needs, regardless of budget and don’t know where to start, contact the NEBRC today at: [email protected] or sign up to our free core membership to keep up to date with the latest cyber security matters and keep your business safe online.
(Primary, Secondary, and Post-16 Education)
The NEBRC works to support educational IT managers, headteachers, and governors across the North East and Yorkshire with cyber security.
One multi-academy trust (MAT) recently approached the NEBRC following concerns that neighbouring schools in their county had suffered ransomware attacks. The MAT was due an OFSTED inspection and wanted to be able to demonstrate that they were protecting the data of staff and pupils.
The NEBRC worked collaboratively with the MAT’s IT staff and technology providers to deliver professional security assessments. Over several days the NEBRC students, while heavily supervised by industry professionals, used a raspberry Pi to connect to the Trust. This meant that they could conduct their assessment work remotely and securely. While assessing the school network, the students identified risks, including the ability to remotely disrupt the power supplies to critical servers and gaining unauthorised access to admin accounts and CCTV systems, which clearly could have had significant impacts on teaching and learning.
Following the assessment, the team created a report for the head teacher and governors with a clear red, amber, and green action plan to address the riskiest areas. This report was tailored with an executive summary for school leaders and governors, and a technical section for the IT team/technology providers. The school has now acted on the report and, as a result, can demonstrate to OFSTED that they have undertaken independent security testing and that the network is much safer than it was.
In addition, the student team has since delivered bespoke security awareness training to all school staff via an hour’s online input on a CPD day. This training has helped teachers to understand the motivations of hackers and how to defend against common cyber attacks such as phishing.
All of this and more was achieved within limited school budgets. The NEBRC was able to keep costs incredibly low by subsidising security assessments. NEBRC students were able to gain invaluable hands-on experience in security testing, making them highly employable post-graduation.
If you want to discuss your cyber security needs, regardless of budget and don’t know where to start, contact the NEBRC today at: [email protected] or sign up to our free core membership to keep up to date with the latest cyber security matters and keep your business safe online.