[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]The DfE published new Cyber Security Standards for Schools in October 2022 after a surge in security breaches.
The DfE advises if schools have not recently reviewed their security, it should be a priority to review it including each device on your network.
Key Points In The New Standards
Protect all devices on every network with a properly configured boundary or software firewall.
Limit only accounts that require access to perform their role to have authenticated access to data and services.
Protect accounts with access to personal or sensitive operational data and functions by multi-factor authentication.
Use anti-malware software to protect all devices in the network, including cloud-based networks.
Protecting your network with a firewall
Properly configured firewalls prevent many attacks.
The Schools Broadband All-In-One hosted solution, combines firewalls, antivirus, e-mail filtering and more in one combined system, and allows complete control and visibility of hosted firewalls.
Secure Remote Working is achieved with our firewall’s built-in capabilities, including FortiToken 2FA, as recommended by the National Cyber Security Centre.
Your firewall and network is managed and monitored 24/7, 365 days a year by our combined AI and specialist security engineers, reducing the need for expensive expert staff.
Network devices should be known and recorded with their security features enabled, correctly configured and kept up-to-date
Accounts with access to personal or sensitive operational data and functions should be protected by multi-factor authentication
Anti-malware software should be used to protect all devices in the school network, including cloud-based networks
Schools Broadband’s filtering and network security services protect schools from downloading applications containing malware, however schools should be wary of downloading applications as even those that don’t contain malware may be harmful in other ways, such as transferring unencrypted data.
[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Schools Broadband has once again been shortlisted as a finalist for Best Cyber Security at the 2022 ISPA Awards.
Schools Broadband’s cyber security services protect over 2000 schools and 250 Multi Academy Trusts with some of the best security in the world, so it’s no surprise we’ve been ISPA Award finalist 10 times and won six times![/vc_column_text][us_image image=”7423″ align=”left”][vc_column_text]The ISPA Awards are the UK’s internet industry awards held annually by The Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA UK), the UK’s Trade Association for providers of internet services.
The awards recognize organisations that provide hosting, cloud and VoIP services and have made the Internet a safer and more secure place for customers. They are independently judged by a panel of industry experts ensuring that only the top performing providers are shortlisted.
Davide Tindall CEO says: “We are absolutely thrilled to reach the finals again for Best Cyber Security this year. We’re very proud of the security service we provide to our customers, so to be ranked amongst the country’s top performing providers is a great honour. Thank you ISPA UK!”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][us_btn label=”Web Filtering” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.talk-straight.com%2Fe-safety-filtering-security%2Fe-safety-filtering%2F|target:_blank” width_type=”full” css=”%7B%22default%22%3A%7B%22background-color%22%3A%22%23E13E8E%22%2C%22border-radius%22%3A%2215px%22%7D%7D”][us_separator size=”custom” height=”10px”][us_btn label=”Network Security” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.talk-straight.com%2Fe-safety-filtering-security%2Fnetwork-security%2F|target:_blank” width_type=”full” css=”%7B%22default%22%3A%7B%22background-color%22%3A%22%23A0184B%22%2C%22border-radius%22%3A%2215px%22%7D%7D”][us_separator size=”custom” height=”10px”][us_btn label=”Full Fibre Broadband” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.talk-straight.com%2Four-services%2Fconnectivity%2Fultrafast-fttp-g-fast%2F|target:_blank” width_type=”full” css=”%7B%22default%22%3A%7B%22background-color%22%3A%22_content_heading%22%2C%22border-radius%22%3A%2215px%22%7D%7D”][us_separator size=”custom” height=”10px”][us_btn label=”VoIP” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.talk-straight.com%2Four-services%2Fphone-services%2Fmy-school-phone%2F|target:_blank” width_type=”full” css=”%7B%22default%22%3A%7B%22background-color%22%3A%22_content_heading%22%2C%22border-radius%22%3A%2215px%22%7D%7D”][us_separator size=”custom” height=”10px”][us_btn label=”Enquiries & Questions” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.talk-straight.com%2Fcontact-us%2F|target:_blank” width_type=”full” css=”%7B%22default%22%3A%7B%22background-color%22%3A%22%230f95cf%22%2C%22border-radius%22%3A%2215px%22%7D%7D”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column]
[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Ofcom are taking their first steps to protecting internet users from harmful online content, as they make preparations for their new role as online safety regulator.
Their 2022 Online Nation report has revealed just one in six young people flag harmful content online. And Jo Hemmings, behavioural and media psychologist says: “ With young people spending so much of their time online, the exposure to harmful content can unknowingly desensitise them to its hurtful impact.”
Ofcom’s new campaign, which launched at the end of last month, aims to help address this lack of reporting. It will feature TikTok influencer Lewis Leigh, who rose to fame during lockdown with his viral TikTok videos showing him teaching his nan, Phyllis, dance moves.
The campaign aims to show young people that, by taking a moment to stop, think and flag problematic content – rather than scrolling past – they can really make an important difference in helping to keep their online communities safer.
[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]On Thursday 30th June, the Government announced that a joint £82m investment by the Departments for Culture (DCMS) and Education (DfE) will mean that, over the next three years, as many as 3,000 primary schools across rural England will now get access to broadband (full fibre) speeds of up to 1000Mbps.
[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][us_image image=”7085″][us_separator size=”small”][vc_column_text]A team of Talk Straight’s top hikers walked 13 miles across the tricky terrain of the Yorkshire Dales on Sunday, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
Alex Sykes, Lee Moores, Rachel Glover, Charlotte Thompson, Sallie Bewell and Sophie Bodenham took to the hills in a bid to raise £4,250, the amount equivalent to the funding of the role of Speech and Language Therapist Jessica Wakeling, based at Airedale Hospital, for one whole month.
Sallie Bewell, Talk Straight’s People Manager, said: “We are all really excited to help fund the wonderful work of Jessica Wakeling – who is invaluable in helping those who have been diagnosed with head and neck cancer to prepare for life-changing surgery and also provide practical emotional support around changes or loss of their speech.”
Speech and Language Therapy work closely with the Macmillan Cancer Nurse Specialists and Dietitians to support individuals prior to, during and after cancer treatment such as surgery or chemoradiotherapy. In addition to communication difficulties patients can often have swallowing difficulties due to their treatment. Often patients use feeding tubes to support their nutrition. Speech and Language Therapy assess their swallowing and provide support and rehabilitation exercises to help patients to swallow to the best of their ability.
Jessica said: “It means so much to me that the team have not only chosen to support Macmillan but have particularly chosen to support our head and neck cancer patients. By raising these funds, they will be providing many people with the support that they may need to get back to eating and drinking again or to come to terms with a new way of life. The impact that this will make to many patients is huge. I cannot thank them enough.”
Macmillan Cancer Support’s Fundraising Manager, Becci Shanks, added: “We are so thrilled with everybody at Talk Straight to have been chosen as their nominated charity. What’s more, their determination and enthusiasm to fundraise despite the many obstacles and delays brought about because of restrictions relating to the pandemic is really humbling. Their target to fund a whole month of Macmillan nursing will make a huge difference in the local community to those living with cancer.”
It’s not too late to support this worthy cause, please visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/talk-straight to donate.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][us_btn label=”Web Filtering” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.talk-straight.com%2Fe-safety-filtering-security%2Fe-safety-filtering%2F|target:_blank” width_type=”full” css=”%7B%22default%22%3A%7B%22background-color%22%3A%22%23E13E8E%22%2C%22border-radius%22%3A%2215px%22%7D%7D”][us_separator size=”custom” height=”10px”][us_btn label=”Network Security” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.talk-straight.com%2Fe-safety-filtering-security%2Fnetwork-security%2F|target:_blank” width_type=”full” css=”%7B%22default%22%3A%7B%22background-color%22%3A%22%23A0184B%22%2C%22border-radius%22%3A%2215px%22%7D%7D”][us_separator size=”custom” height=”10px”][us_btn label=”Full Fibre Broadband” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.talk-straight.com%2Four-services%2Fconnectivity%2Fultrafast-fttp-g-fast%2F|target:_blank” width_type=”full” css=”%7B%22default%22%3A%7B%22background-color%22%3A%22_content_heading%22%2C%22border-radius%22%3A%2215px%22%7D%7D”][us_separator size=”custom” height=”10px”][us_btn label=”VoIP” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.talk-straight.com%2Four-services%2Fphone-services%2Fmy-school-phone%2F|target:_blank” width_type=”full” css=”%7B%22default%22%3A%7B%22background-color%22%3A%22_content_heading%22%2C%22border-radius%22%3A%2215px%22%7D%7D”][us_separator size=”custom” height=”10px”][us_btn label=”Enquiries & Questions” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.talk-straight.com%2Fcontact-us%2F|target:_blank” width_type=”full” css=”%7B%22default%22%3A%7B%22background-color%22%3A%22%230f95cf%22%2C%22border-radius%22%3A%2215px%22%7D%7D”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column]
KCSiE: Summary of Changes to Requirements for Online Safety in Schools
Appropriate filters and monitoring systems should be in place and their effectiveness regularly reviewed
Leadership teams and relevant staff need to have an awareness and understanding of the provisions in place, be able to manage them effectively and know how to escalate concerns when identified
Governing bodies and proprietors should consider the age range of their children, the number of children and how often they access the IT system
Contact Schools Broadband to discuss how our world-leading hosted web filtering service can keep your school compliant. 01133 222 333 (#3)
Mobile Phones
Schools should have a clear policy on the use of mobile and smart technology.
This should consider how schools manage unrestricted access to the internet via mobile phone networks and the potential for mobile devices to be used whilst on the school premises for bullying, sexual harassment and sharing of harmful content etc.
Role of the designated safeguarding lead and online safety
Governing bodies should ensure schools appoint an appropriate staff member as their designated safeguarding lead. (DSL)
The DSL should have the relevant knowledge and capability to keep children safe whilst they are online at school.
The Schools Broadband web filtering service provides dynamic reports and immediate safeguarding alerts for DSLs. Contact us to find out more: 01133 222 333 (#3)
Read the full KCSIE 2022 document here.[/vc_column_text][us_iconbox icon=”fas|comments-alt” color=”custom” icon_color=”#ec3fa8″ size=”100px” iconpos=”left” alignment=”left”]
[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Children spent a quarter of their time in class daydreaming, according to new research from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB).
“Mind wandering is detrimental during educationally significant activities,” the QUB paper said.
“In an educational context, if students fail to attend to instruction because of (daydreaming) this may impede their chances of acquiring crucial skills or knowledge.”
The results of the study suggest that if children are highly interested in a lesson in school, they daydream less and remember more.
But how can teachers keep children that are used to such high levels of stimulation from video games and television interested in their lessons? Technology may hold the answer.
Times are changing and the “Digitods”, children who grew up with digital devices from a young age, are demanding more from their learning. White boards and textbooks alone are no longer enough to hold their attention. Bringing the digital world into the classroom allows learning to become more engaging, more fulfilling and more stimulating.
That’s why over half of all Secondary headteachers and over a third of Primary headteachers are planning to invest in technology to support blended learning (EdTech Survey May 2021). With this comes increasing demand on School networks. To meet the demand, the Department for Education has introduced new standards for broadband in schools, including minimum internet speeds, and advises these new standards must be met by schools a soon as possible.
For primary and smaller schools, this can be achieved with Ultrafast FTTP, but secondary schools should consider a leased line.
Read more about how your school can meet today’s challenging demands and the DfE’s minimum standards:
Summary of DfE Broadband and Internet Standards For Schools
The DfE set minimum standards in March 2022 as guidelines for schools when choosing the right digital infrastructure and technology to promote safer, more cost-efficient practices in schools.
They advise the standards should be used by everyone involved in the planning and use of technology within schools which can also help with budgeting for procurement and maintenance.
All schools should now use a full fibre connection for their broadband service. This allows broadband capacity for the use of online learning tools, a more cost-effective use of cloud services and bandwidth capacity to switch to digital based VOIP telephony when traditional phone lines are withdrawn.
A full fibre connection provides flexibility to future proof your school as demand for internet services increase.
Ensure new contracts or contract extensions using non-full fibre connection types provide the opportunity to change to fibre services when they become available.
Meeting Broadband Standards For Less
Investigate the availability of FTTP – Fibre To The Premises. FTTP is the fastest available broadband at the lowest available price up to 1000Mbps
Schools Broadband partners with many of the new AltNet providers, providing full fibre connections up to 1Gbps at very competitive rates
Primary schools should have a minimum 100Mbps download speed and a minimum of 30Mbps upload speed
Secondary and all-through schools should have a minimum 1Gbps connection
Backup and Failover Broadband Connections
As the internet is now an essential service in all schools, an automatic failover to an additional backup connection of a different type to your main connection is now required to provide internet continuity. You should also ensure that you have a firewall as part of your internet and network system.
IT Security and Online Safeguarding
Under both child and data protection legislation and a statutory obligation as part of Keeping Children Safe in Education, schools are required to safeguard children from potentially harmful and inappropriate online material. Your Filtering service should enable identification, intervention and escalation where appropriate.
[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]All Fun and Games? Exploring Respect and Relationships Online
Schools Broadband are supporting Safer Internet Day again. This year the theme is “All Fun and Games? Exploring Respect and Relationships Online.”
You may know that our web filtering service protects children in over 2,000 schools across the UK from accessing harmful and inappropriate content. But what happens when these children go home? We’ve partnered with the NCA to develop our filtering service’s block page into more than the typical “Access Denied” page. It now acts as an educational tool that informs children on the dangers of their searches and educates them on how to put their cyber skills to better use, in the hope of changing attitudes rather than simply moving the problem outside of school.
According to the UK Safer Internet Centre, 77% of young people have spent more time playing online games and apps during the pandemic than ever before.
Children are often introduced to cyber crime through gaming at an early age. There were 259 referrals between 2019 and 2020 from police into the National Cyber Crime Unit Cyber Choices Programme, with the average age being 15, and the youngest being 9.
There’s a huge growth in children and young people witnessing friends and teammates gaining gaming advantages online using DDoS attacks; targeted networks are flooded with traffic, causing speeds to slow to a halt and temporarily knocking competing gamers offline.
It is now all too easy for young people to access attack tools online. They will likely be aware that this is cheating, and against the rules of the game, but probably unaware that they are committing a crime. Many will have likely dipped their toe in the water to gain an advantage in online gaming, but what starts with DDoS attacks, hacking accounts, phishing etc. is just the thin-end of the wedge and can evolve into serious cyber crime such as ransomware.
Intervention at an early age, when exposure and exploration is in its infancy can prevent a ripple effect of online criminality, that has the potential to be felt beyond the individual and go nationally, and even globally. The Schools Broadband NCA Block Page is just one more way we’re helping to make the internet a safer place.
For teacher resources including Assembly and Lesson Plans, and classroom games for all age groups, go to: https://www.saferinternetday.org/en-GB/resources[/vc_column_text][us_iconbox icon=”fas|comments-alt” color=”custom” icon_color=”#ec3fa8″ size=”100px” iconpos=”left” alignment=”left”]
[vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]Cyber attacks on school networks have more than doubled during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Data from the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) shows there was a 107 per cent increase in reports from the police cyber prevent network of students deploying DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks from 2019 to 2020.
To tackle this and help educate and protect students, Schools Broadband has partnered with the NCA to launch a new safeguarding initiative.
Users of Schools Broadband’s internet filtering service for schools will now be directed to a unique block page when searching for terms related to cyber crime. The special block page will inform school children of the dangers of cyber crime, and direct them to the NCA’s Cyber Choices website, where they can learn to put their cyber skills to better use.
Trials of the service with select schools have proven positive. Schools Broadband has already successfully prevented a potential attack by alerting a school that one of their users was repeatedly searching for terms such as “How to DDoS school”.
Search terms related to DDoS attacks make up the majority of what triggers the block page, with children often searching for how to disrupt their favourite online games. It’s likely that many school children would consider this simply cheating at a game – against the rules but not serious. Which is why it’s important to educate children that these activities are criminal acts and can result in serious consequences.
Following the successful trial, the service will now be going live to over 2,000 schools across the UK as a standard feature in Schools Broadband’s internet filtering service.
David Tindall, CEO Schools Broadband, said:
“By working in partnership with the National Crime Agency, we are helping to make the online world a more secure place. We’re building not just safety into our web filtering, but education too, helping combat potential criminal activity proactively instead of tackling it afterwards.
“If we can educate children and inform them that these activities are dangerous and can result in criminal prosecution, we can potentially prevent a future cyber criminal.
“This is our contribution, to prevent a ripple effect of online criminality, that has the potential to be felt beyond the individual and go nationally, and even globally.”
John Denley, Deputy Director of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit, said:
“Education is a key pillar in preventing crime and these messages highlight the risks and consequences of committing cyber offences, which can result in a criminal record for life.
“Law enforcement plays a critical role in tackling cybercrime and keeping the country safe. School outreach is important to educate a younger audience and this initiative will continue to help divert young people away from criminality.
“This is a great example of the private sector helping us deliver the Cyber Choices message.”
Damian Hinds, Security Minister, said:
“Tackling cybercrime is at the heart of the Government’s new National Cyber Strategy.
“We need to equip this generation with the best digital skills and to assist them in making the right choices online.
“It’s great to see cooperation between law enforcement and the private sector in delivering important initiatives like this one to prevent students from getting involved in cybercrime”.[/vc_column_text][us_iconbox icon=”fas|comments-alt” color=”custom” icon_color=”#ec3fa8″ size=”100px” iconpos=”left” alignment=”left”]