Protecting your school from cyber attacks

Hacking, phishing, malicious software and distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks are on the increase according to the National Crime Agency. With more and more schools falling victim to cybercrime and pressure mounting on governors and school leaders to implement appropriate controls, edtech charity LGfL-The National Grid for Learning  has launched a new, free resource called the Elevate Cybersecurity Toolkit for Schools to help steer them in the right direction.

 

The new toolkit comprises a collection of key documents that schools can use to improve their cybersecurity and also use as a foundation for attaining Cyber Essentials Certification – a foundation level certification designed to provide a statement of the basic controls they should have in place to mitigate the risk from common cyber threats.

 

The following key documents can be downloaded for free:

 

A CyberSecurity Policy Template  – designed to complement the schools existing social media and acceptable use policies – which outlines the school’s guidelines and security provisions that are there to protect its systems, services, and data in the event of a cyberattack.

 

An Incident Response Plan which can be used as a starting point for planning recovery from a ransomware attack, or any other kind of unforeseen outage.

 

An Example Risk Register that can be used to assess, evaluate, prioritise and manage cybersecurity risks. This can also be used by the school’s senior leadership team to report to governors on how they are proactively managing risks and improving cybersecurity.

 

An Example Asset Register that can be used as a starting point to inventory the equipment used in the school. It sounds obvious, but it’s impossible to be secure if you don’t know what you have.

 

An Example Software Register used to record which software/systems schools have and whether they hold confidential information. This can be used to complement the Incident Response Plan for prioritising the recovery of services.

 

Commenting on the new resource, Dinesh Seegobin, Head of ICT at STEP Academy Trust, said, “We all know that being aware of cybersecurity is critical but how many of us can claim to be experts? In addition, there is so much information out there to digest, where do you begin? This is where, yet again, LGfL has come to our rescue. The Elevate Cybersecurity Toolkit is an absolute game changer. A one-stop shop to help get you on track backed up with all the weight of industry experts.”

 

To download your free copy please visit http://www.elevate.lgfl.net