USB Pen Drives

[westleya]

Just had an incident here that's left me wondering...

A member of our teaching staff has just demanded that a pupil hand over his own USB drive, suspecting that it contained flash games that he's been using in lessons. As it happenes it did, but having just inspected the contents of his drive, I'm wondering about the legality of this.

I know that staff can confiscate mobiles, but are NOT allowed to look at what's on them. Would it be the same with usb drives ?

[irsprint]

I class it as anything that poses a threat to the school

[ricki]

Me too but if in doubt have it written into your aup.

Richard

[CyberNerd]

that'll teach the kiddie to encrypt it next time..

[Tim_S]

Well.... After finding out that a pupil had used a teacher login (hmm) to get a list of all pupils email accounts & passwords, he was made to bring in all phones, pen drives, laptops and computers from home and have them formatted.

Either that or being expelled. I don't want to consider the legality of that....

[jamesb]

Well.... After finding out that a pupil had used a teacher login (hmm) to get a list of all pupils email accounts & passwords, he was made to bring in all phones, pen drives, laptops and computers from home and have them formatted.

Either that or being expelled. I don't want to consider the legality of that....

Why did the teacher have a list of pupils passwords?

[Dos_Box]

How appropriate. At the conf we are allowing one company to demonstrate a very, very nice piece of software (I'm allowing it as they are to give quite a few of you the opportunity to win full licences for your schools). It's called Gatekeeper and will log any and all USB devices\drives connected to your systems, log the contents and give you the options of specifying just what files can or cannot be added or removed. It also has the ability to encrypt drives for staff.
This is just a quick overview, and you can see more here: TakeWare Gatekeeper
They will be coming to the conf in the afternoon to give you all a quick demo, and best of all, it does seem very affordable

[witch]

Well.... After finding out that a pupil had used a teacher login (hmm) to get a list of all pupils email accounts & passwords, he was made to bring in all phones, pen drives, laptops and computers from home and have them formatted.

Either that or being expelled. I don't want to consider the legality of that....

How would you know that he had brought them all in anyway?

[Tim_S]

Why did the teacher have a list of pupils passwords?

A very good question. Not my decision and something I'm against, but hey ho.

His parents were brought in, and as they were friends of a senior member of staff, the dad brought everything in - even digital cameras etc. Interesting day....

[westleya]

Me too but if in doubt have it written into your aup.

Richard

We have - the AUP says that pen drives are classified as the same as the lockers, that is any staff member can demand to look at what's inside.

The point is, is that actually legal. As far as I know the school isn't an independent nation and isn't above British law...

[grumpy_git]

We have - the AUP says that pen drives are classified as the same as the lockers, that is any staff member can demand to look at what's inside.

The point is, is that actually legal. As far as I know the school isn't an independent nation and isn't above British law...

I think the locker analogy is good for students home directory on a server (eg it's provided by the school, for the student to store things in - but staff might need to look in it (as they would with a locker if they suspected you were keeping things you shouldn't be in it), or equally may need access for maintenance (as they would if your locker was damaged and the site staff needed to fix it)).

But I'm less sure about pen drives. Surely they're like a students ringbinder - they buy it, for school use, but might also keep things from home on it.

I suppose that once they plug the pen drive into a school computer, we're allowed to set rules on what can/can't be on them. So if students want to bring in pen drives full of porn or downloaded music, that's nothing to do with the IT department - but if they stick them in a school computer it is.

More of concern IMHO is the number of staff who store confidential information on pen drives, but I don't think anybody is going to worry about that too much until it gets lost and the sh*t hits the fan.

[jamesb]

I suppose that once they plug the pen drive into a school computer, we're allowed to set rules on what can/can't be on them. So if students want to bring in pen drives full of porn or downloaded music, that's nothing to do with the IT department - but if they stick them in a school computer it is.

If they bring a Playboy magazine into school, that is the school's business. I don't see the difference just because it might be electronic.

[westleya]

If they bring a Playboy magazine into school, that is the school's business. I don't see the difference just because it might be electronic.

Any Playboy magazines brought here would be instantly confiscated by ICT support. And held indefinately.

[penfold]

I'm of the same view as jamesb, if they bring in something they shouldn't have, the school can confiscate it if they find it. If it is plugged into a computer then it should be checked. And this was added to the AUP and signs were placed in rooms stating that nothing should be connected to the network without being checked through IT first. The way I see it, it is the schools network and they set out the rules for using it, if you dont agree with the rules, dont use the network.

[BTCC_Fan]

Its an interesting situation to be in really.

I suppose it could be thought of like the students school bag. It may have personal items in it but the school has the right to search it if they suspect that there is something in it that they shouldn't have.