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Posted
We are encrypting all school staff laptops - regardless if they assure us that they won't save personal data. For USBs we will do the same or disable all portable storage usage. They have access to their secure areas and have a backup option of the cloud.

 

It's a discussion that needs to be with the Data Protection Officer and/or leadership.

 

We are using our judgment and experience with staff to simply say - we can't trust them tomorrow to not save personal data on an insecure device. This protects them, the school and personal data.

 

Be safe, not sorry.

 

We recently implemented an auto lock after 15 minutes of inactivity for all users. Some grumbles but it's time for people to wake up to data protection. GDPR is coming because not enough take it serious. Too many have got a bit too accustomed to doing things their way. You have to take the hard approach.

 

This post might seem a bit blunt but after a huge amount of discussions with the DPO/LM/HT - we decided it's the way to protect the school 'cover our backs' which is what the best approach for us is.

Looking in to this myself, what are you using to encrypt your staff laptops?

Posted

We recently implemented an auto lock after 15 minutes of inactivity for all users. Some grumbles but it's time for people to wake up to data protection. GDPR is coming because not enough take it serious. Too many have got a bit too accustomed to doing things their way. You have to take the hard approach.

How does that affect Teachers in a classroom who may be showing a static display on the board for longer than 15 minutes?

Posted
How does that affect Teachers in a classroom who may be showing a static display on the board for longer than 15 minutes?

 

Most projectors (or screened IWB's) have a Freeze function.

Or they could just wiggle the mouse a bit.

Posted
Most projectors (or screened IWB's) have a Freeze function.

Or they could just wiggle the mouse a bit.

 

When a video is playing or youtube does the lock kick in then?

Posted
Or they could just wiggle the mouse a bit.

 

At my last school, we had cordless mice in all classrooms - the kids loved being the one asked to move the mouse every few minutes! To be honest, people fidget enough I suspect just asking a kid to keep hold of it would be sufficient.

  • 1 month later...
Posted
Slight diversion: Where do you get your encrypted memory sticks and how much do you pay please?

 

We just Bitlocker ordinary ones generally. Not sure of a reason to buy the ones with keypads or whatever.

Posted
We just Bitlocker ordinary ones generally. Not sure of a reason to buy the ones with keypads or whatever.

 

In a word, Macbooks.

Posted
In a word, Macbooks.

 

ARGH IT BURNS!

 

(Yeah fair one, we are a windows only establishment. I wonder if they work on Chromebooks either, I'm betting no)

Posted
ARGH IT BURNS!

 

(Yeah fair one, we are a windows only establishment. I wonder if they work on Chromebooks either, I'm betting no)

 

Are all your staff Windows-only at home, though? I'm tempted to Bitlocker everything and tell those staff with Macs "tough, use Google Drive instead" but I think that might be about as popular as a fart in a lift.

Posted
Are all your staff Windows-only at home, though? I'm tempted to Bitlocker everything and tell those staff with Macs "tough, use Google Drive instead" but I think that might be about as popular as a fart in a lift.

Their work laptops are, personal equipment no (not even me, but linux rather than Mac in my case) but they have to use OneDrive or rdp into school to work on those anyway, so nbd.

 

We told them they have to stop using USBs and use OneDrive instead, it was indeed about as popular as a fart in a lift in the announcement meeting but since then only 2 people have complained and gotten USBs to use instead; both legit (the Tech team need USBs to transfer files from Autocad to the machines and a SEN assisstant needs to update an images-to-speech tablet) so it went over pretty well all told.

Posted
Slight diversion: Where do you get your encrypted memory sticks and how much do you pay please?

 

Are people still on the idea of using USB sticks? We are blocking them all together at some point but I do see people wanting to still use them. Is the risk not as bad as we think it is when it comes to them?

Posted
Are people still on the idea of using USB sticks? We are blocking them all together at some point but I do see people wanting to still use them. Is the risk not as bad as we think it is when it comes to them?

 

The risk is unacceptable without encryption, but some people do legitimately have reasons to use them. The vast majority can be forced to use Google Drive/OneDrive with no problems.

Posted
The risk is unacceptable without encryption, but some people do legitimately have reasons to use them. The vast majority can be forced to use Google Drive/OneDrive with no problems.

 

We are going through OneDrive with the staff at the moment so they can learn how to use it, we have had a few staff complain about the blocking of USB sticks saying "My life is on there, don't block them.".

 

Even from a non GDPR point of view putting your "life" on a USB is just a bad idea, so that's another reason the school are in favour of just blocking them altogether.

Posted

The only reason staff would want to use ancient technology like USB sticks is because the college doesn't have a better online solution.

As soon as you put in a decent system that people want to use the usage of USB sticks drops off a cliff; and so does most of your data protection worries and the problem of recovering data from the damn things.

1) chose an online suite such as google/office etc

2) prevent documents being downloaded

It becomes a complete non-issue when people use the cloud tools and don't rely the old tech, same happened with floppy disks and CD's.

Posted
The only reason staff would want to use ancient technology like USB sticks is because the college doesn't have a better online solution.

As soon as you put in a decent system that people want to use the usage of USB sticks drops off a cliff; and so does most of your data protection worries and the problem of recovering data from the damn things.

1) chose an online suite such as google/office etc

2) prevent documents being downloaded

It becomes a complete non-issue when people use the cloud tools and don't rely the old tech, same happened with floppy disks and CD's.

Do you actually prevent them downloading files from Google/O365 then? And just make them use the online editors?

Posted
How do you prevent documents being downloaded from G Suite?

 

 

  1. Go to drive.google.com.
  2. Select a file or folder that you own.
  3. At the top, click Share person_add.
  4. In the bottom-right corner, click Advanced.
  5. Do one of the following options:
    • If you selected a file, check the Disable options to download, print, and copy for commenters and viewers box.
    • If you selected a folder, check the Prevent editors from changing access and adding new people box.

 

[*]Click

Save changes

.

[*]Click

Done

.

Now, anyone with view or comment access will see the download, print, and copy options grayed out.

Posted
Needs data to be secure, uploads to internet, unencrypted -- 2008 wouldn't have believed you

 

Data uploaded to Google Drive or O365 is encrypted during transfer and at rest - the only problem is the company having access to it, but unless we're all gonna start using NextCloud and Collabora or something that battle has long been lost.

Posted
We are going through OneDrive with the staff at the moment so they can learn how to use it, we have had a few staff complain about the blocking of USB sticks saying "My life is on there, don't block them."

 

We are Google Drive not OneDrive, and our problem is Google Apps/Drive hates PowerPoint files so staff are still carrying USBs with their lesson PPTs on, though they're now keeping sensitive stuff in Drive.

Posted
What does it hate about powerpoint?

 

Doesn't allow you to edit them online, and the online viewer is pretty limited too.

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