Password complexity for primary school

[3rdknight]

Apologies up front if this is the wrong forum but it seems as good as any!

 

I am a Governor for my local primary school and, since I work in the IT industry (having done support, engineering and design), for my sins I have ended up acting as some form of pseudo-ICT adviser for the school. My predecessor (who also worked in IT but as a programmer/technical writer), despite best intentions, has left the school with a far from desirable set-up and I am now trying to help sort out the various issues that they are now encountering.

 

The main issue they have is that their single, curriculum "server" is really a desktop PC with Windows Server 2003 installed on it, acting as a DC. It doesn't have RAID, isn't being backed up (in any meaningful sense that would facilitate a restore) and the whole user account/profile/home drive set-up is a disaster area. Suffice to say, they are now looking to put in a new "proper" server and sorting this mess out, which brings me on to the point of this post and my request for help/guidance.

 

For reasons unknown, when they set up the existing server and domain, they decided to give every pupil (bearing in mind that this is a primary school so we are talking children aged 4 to 11) their own logon. To make things easy (or a nightmare, depending on your point of view), each logon's password is the same as the logon ID itself. The logon IDs are of the form A01, A02, A03 etc. with each year group having a different letter prefix. Supposedly, each child was meant to keep the same ID as they moved up the years/classes, although some children thought they changed letters when they moved up a year so have now started logging on with IDs belonging to children in the year above etc. etc. ... see what I mean about mess?!

 

Anyway, recently I have been involved in bringing their e-safety policy up to scratch (well, writing it from scratch really) and I started looking at passwords. If it was just staff logging on to the network then I'd be looking for decent password complexity rules, account lockout attempts and forcing password changes every 30 days or so. However, since the children have these simple logon IDs and passwords, we can't do that. There's no way that a 4 year old child is going to be able to remember a 6 character password containing a lower case character, an upper case character and a number, and change it to something different every 30 days! They have enough trouble remembering their 3 character logon!!

 

So, what does everyone else do? How do you balance network security (which demands a decent password policy) against having passwords that the younger children can remember? Do most people just have generic class logons that everyone shares? The school is keen that each child has a dedicated "area" (be it a folder, shared drive or whatever) in which they can save their work so how can that be achieved with shared logons without running the risk of children in the same class overwriting each other's work? Plus, I hate generic logons anyway as they represent a security risk and you lose traceability!

 

Apologies for the long post ... any advice/guidance/previous experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards,

3rdknight

[elsiegee40]

Password complexity with Server 2k3 in Primary schools is a nightmare.

 

You can only have one policy and it needs to accomodate everyone. Hence you end up with 3 letter passwords that are the same for the entire school, just so Reception - Year 2 can take less than half an hour to logon.

 

My school is no different. If we had any outside access to the network, I would be terrified... as it is I'm just plain scared, BUT we are going server 2008 this summer and then the password policy will change as this can be set at OU level.

 

Every child at my school from Reception up has their own logon (we have a Pre-school from age 3 months and they use a single logon for the children that use our computers) and they are taught their individual password, the need to keep it secret and to keep it safe. It's an important message and the sooner they learn it the better.

 

Years 4to 6 at my school have to change their passwords 3 times a year,just like the teachers. It's fun ... but they learn!

 

I inherited the setup we have, but given the e-safety message we are trying to drive home, I have no qualms about individual logons from Reception upwards or about password security.

 

As soon as we go 2k8, teachers will have to have more secure passwords... at the moment I get away with white lies saying they must be at least 6 characters long and contain alphameric characters! Password security is contained in our very stiff AUP, so the teachers are contractually obliged to make sure their logons are secure.

[3rdknight]

Well, at least we're not alone then! Many thanks for your reply elsiegee40.

 

It's been a while since I've buried myself in Windows Server (I've been dabbling in AIX for the last couple of years) and I've not had a chance to bring myself up to speed with the new features of W2K8 ... different password policies per OU is a definite plus and since I'm intending to put W2K8 on the new server anyway, this is fantastic news - thank you! (Note to self, read up on other new features of W2K8 that I've missed out on!)

 

We've updated our AUPs too with strict policies on password security so I guess this helps too.

 

I'm still left with the niggling issue though of whether user IDs and passwords of A01, A02 etc. are the best answer ... any other set-ups out there?

[PiqueABoo]

Sprogette's school:

 

Nursery and reception accounts: N01, N02,... and R01, R02,... no one cares which kid uses which account and their are no passwords.

Y1 - Y6: Have format "yyAliceB" where yy is year of entry to school e.g. "07" (reduces account name collisions), no passwords for Y1-Y5, but Y6 have passwords in preparation for Secondary ICT-life.

 

Seems to work fine.

[witch]

The primary i work in has year log ons and all the children use them. I have advocated individual passwords for the top two years but noone would do it.

As for password change - I can't even get the staff to do it, never mind the kids (in both the schools I work in)

[elsiegee40]

I force password changes on Tuesday of the second week of every main term (September, January and April/May) with the HT's blessing. Everybody hates it and at first staff were openly hostile, but they are used to it now. I remind them that it will happen at the start of term staff meeting and now they just groan.

[chrbb]

Class logons here, upper school all use same password, even that causes problems with some pupils! Every pupil has their own folder, within their class folder along with a class shared folder for prepared work to go in.

 

The staff don't need to know anything about password policies on server 2003, I've told ours they must have letters and numbers as it's school's policy that staff have complex passwords! It's broad shoulder time with some staff but that's part of our job

Edited May 8, 2010 by chrbb

[Michael]

It is a difficult question to answer. As a general rule because Windows Logon is all internal, it's safe to have usernames setup such as the year of entry, first letter of their first name and then their surname, with a standard password. You may wish for Year 5 and 6 to be able to change their passwords, but really that's at the discretion of the school.

 

The second problem is e-mail. Some authorities are using incredibly complex usernames as suggested by Becta. Something like AD123JO345@domain-name which for a child is incredibly difficult for them to remember, even with the creation of flash cards they can carry around. How many teachers did Becta consult on this? Probably zero.

 

The moral of the story is computer security is important, but make it too difficult and teachers will lose patience and even worse, pupils will lose out. It's important to get the balance right otherwise this creates a huge hindrance to children learning ICT.

[SimpleSi]

 

Just because you can do something (enforcing complex passwords/password rotation/single user logons) doesn't mean you should.

 

Why do you want children's work to be secure? (Apart from that you can )

It's important to get the balance right otherwise this creates a huge hindrance to children learning ICT.

I'm with him

 

I believe the major problem of non-secure logons is the ability of pupils to overwrite/move other pupils folders - I don't believe that their actual work is that important - most of it is just a record and is not re-used (with exceptions like Photostory projects of course) and simple data backups is good enough to secure those if they do get accidently deleted.

 

I work in schools to enhance the teaching and learning and try and do whatever it takes to keep lessons rolling - and complex passwords is not a friend to that goal

 

The only time I move to complex passwords is when the pupils are given access to a VLE (Moodle in our case) from home AND are using forum's/chat etc as I believe that it then becomes important to use "security" - but more for control purposes than anything else

 

regards

Simon

PS @3rdknight - every new school I've ever gone into - I've thought - what a mess - and I'm sure every IT person who's taken over one of my old schools has said - what a mess

 

Primaries (with rare exceptions - some of whom have posted above) don't engage sufficient resources into IT Management as it simply is not a financial priority

Edited May 8, 2010 by SimpleSi

[bossman]

Anyone thought of biometrics which most schools use for catering?

 

Could use the same DB and with all the computers setup (in a primary school not too many computers) with bio-readers this would prove very effective and efficient for both students and staff would it not. This would also have the added security criteria due to safeguarding and e-safety protocols and would be more cost effective than having the schools security breached.

[mossj]

@simplesi at primary theres certainly only that reason but towards the end of compolsory education schools need to start thinking about getting student ready for the world of work.

 

Strong passwords is certainly part of that world.

[leco]

Anyone thought of biometrics which most schools use for catering?

OK you have my attention - what exactly is that? I don't think our catering uses it.

[PiqueABoo]

Must every thread on this forum, including ones with an explicit primary in the title be Secondaryfied?

[SYNACK]

OK you have my attention - what exactly is that? I don't think our catering uses it.

 

Fingerprint readers, I have to say that I have thought about this or about smartcards for logon but the readers are expensive and we don't have such a limited amount of machines. Additionally for the moment you would need to use some form of additional software to log on to the domain with fingerprints without registering every user on every station. These systems do exist but are an extra cost.

 

Smartcards don't have this problem and the readers are usually cheaper butthese can be easily lost/stolen/forgotten so it limits their effectivness.

 

@3rdknight - we just use standard class logons, each class gets its own password set by the teacher which all the students for that class know. I agree with SimpleSi in that most of the time the work is not critically important and we don't really seem to have issues with users deleting anything, rather the opposite.

Edited May 8, 2010 by SYNACK

[Face-Man]

Anyone thought of biometrics which most schools use for catering?

 

I've used biometrics - all be it with a secondary school - it worked well but cost a lot to set up and to maintain the hardware (vandalism and failure rate) - there are some concerns around private information being stored (ie police checking fingerprint) that need to be explained to parents - it is not 100% accurate which can lead to frustration (ie if you can't log in with a password you assume you typed it wrongly and try again if it biometric you blame the system and call the network manager)

[3rdknight]

Thanks for all your contributions - even those who couldn't resist bringing secondary schools into the discussion!

 

It's clear that most of you consider complex password for infant children unnecessary and undesirable, and I can see your point. My problem (and I'm acutely aware of it) is that I have worked in the financial services industry for (way) too long and am used to a completely risk-adverse culture whereby you normally need DNA samples to log on I accept that the school environment does not require such strong security measures, although I am still slightly concerned around data protection. Being able to log on to the school's network so easily is a gift for anyone attempting to gain access to school records etc.. I know it's a "closed network" to the extent that there are inherently physical access controls (locks on the doors!) in place, but it still niggles ... guess I'll just have to get over it

 

Re keeping the children's work secure ... my understanding is that now that ICT is becoming a core primary education subject, there is increasing emphasis on monitoring and assessing the child's progress in ICT, which means being able to keep a "portfolio" of work as the child progresses through the school. Therefore, other children saving their work in the wrong folder etc. and confused ownership will become a real issue, if it isn't already. Certainly, at my school, my ICT Coordinator is already pulling her hair out because she knows some children's work has got mixed up.

 

Anyway, thanks again all for your comments ... keep them coming!

[leco]

Synack: Thanks for the explanation - way too complicated and expensive for my school.

 

Our system is similar to others here: Class username and password (Years 3 to 6 Junior School). Each class keeps the password as they progress through the school. I have for now begun to make the passwords more complex, but not so much that they are not memorable. It is quite amazing though how young people can actually remember something that's so important:)

 

Each class has a shared folder, each pupil has their own folder with year group folders within. Thus they keep all of the work they ever create whilst at the school. At the end of Year 6 I write their folder to CD, which is presented to them as a leaving present. Yes I know that CDs may become a thing of the past, and yes I know that some of the files may not be accessible to them at home if they don't have the necessary software/hardware. However, it does ensure that they hold their own work.

[3rdknight]

Here's a thought ... anyone used folder redirection to redirect each pupil's My Documents folder to a separate network folder? Could be done at an OU level, so only affects pupils, plus then teachers can view all pupils' folders at the same time (if they're structured into class/year parent folders etc.).

 

Really want to make this idiot proof (well, reception child proof anyway) so that each pupil doesn't have to think about where to save their work.

[GrumbleDook]

Ok ... consider this as a non-key stage specific explanation. If you are working on an open source project then each person may contribute code to a particular section. Depending on how you have set down procedures for it you may have it as a bit of a free for all and people put things in where they think best based on the instructions you have given them. Occasionally you get people copying over other code and so you have to revert back to previous entries instead (shadow volume copy anyone?)

 

As the project gets larger you might need to lock out certain people to only certain parts ... and so instead of a free for all you then give each person their own access ... but you still have the same general pot everyone contributes to. At least now you have some audit control so you know *who* made the changes ... but it is still a little ad-hoc (everyone still access a generic share and can do stuff to each other's work, but shadow volume copy will still help here).

 

The project now needs almost total control. Each person can only access their own piece of code. They have a clearly identified login and are told it is theirs. However, others may still have access to other accounts in case they need to so you don't use password control.

 

Finally you have to make sure that only the right person works on the right piece of code. The user accounts is now also locked down with a password too and every user is accountable with what happens with their code.

 

I know it sounds overly complicated but lets put it back into the educational settings.

 

Reception & Y1 - computers log on automatically using a single generic account but there is a group share that everyone can use. it may be (depending on the number of computers) that this is not automatic but a class account with no password (possibly just click on the class name and it takes you in).

 

Y2 & Y3 - you might still use class accounts or you might start moving to individual user accounts, but no passwords. The children still just use a single generic share but have their own folder.

 

Y4 - Individual user accounts but now also have their own home folder, only basic passwords if you are going to use them ... based around words they would be expected to know at this level (3 or 4 letter words ... ball, dog, cat, door, hall, bell, etc) but may be more advanced depending on the reading ability of the user. No ability to change password as that will sit with the teacher who knows all the passwords.

 

Y5 & Y6 - individual accounts, a general share for the class / year and individual user home areas. Basic passwords in place, teacher still control it but now possibly 5 or 6 letter words, based on what they know.

 

Y6 - Start giving the ability to change passwords to the kids as part of easing them into transition.

 

All the way through stress about ownership and control ... about how you only share what you have to, about respect for other people's property (you would not paint over someone else's work so don't delete stuff on computers either, etc) and so on.

 

This is a very rough guide and will vary from school to school, depending on confidence of the teacher (sometimes the limiting factor), the literacy levels of the children and the importance of ICT in the curriculum of the school. It is not perfect and not definitive. Always be willing to adapt.

 

Password complexity should not be a barrier to children using ICT. The school should take careful control over staff usage of accounts to ensure that if a teacher is using a generic computer in the classroom that any child using it should not have access to the sort of information covered by the DPA. If staff have a laptop / desktop connected to an IWB for children use consider having two accounts for staff ... a staff account and a teacher-in-class account (which still has access to the work needed but not shares with sensitive info on). This is very important for a Head / Deputy who teaches. Staff passwords should be suitably complex (not enforced by technology but by policy / procedures) and not shared in anyway with anyone else.

[SimpleSi]

Bloomin heck - I might be agreeing with a post from Tony

 

regards

 

Simon

[GrumbleDook]

Bloomin heck - I might be agreeing with a post from Tony

 

regards

 

Simon

 

It was bound to happen eventually. I have a large collection of chimpanzees, all with typewriters, churning out various posts so one was bound to hit the spot sometime.

[djones]

We're a large-ish primary and are setup something like this:

 

Reception: Automatic logon using a single class account and password (year09/year09);

Year 1: Auto logon for the first term using a single class account and password (year08/year08);

Year 2: Single class account and password (year07/year07) moving to individual usernames and passwords for more able as appropriate during the year. This takes the form of 'year of entry+initials' (e.g. 06ABC) and their 6 digit date of birth (e.g 010203);

Year 3-6: Individual usernames and passwords as above;

 

('yearXX' relates to the year the children started in Reception)

 

All accounts use redirected 'My Documents' with staff having access to the root of the share for children's folders (Pupil's My Documents > KS2> 2007 > 07CBA > My Documents). This area is for children to save anything personal e.g. not connected with class, directed learning.

 

There is a central shared area available ('Pupil's Learning') that has folders for each academic year (e.g. '2009-2010') which contains year group folders (e.g. 'Reception', 'Year 1-2', 'Year 3-4' and 'Year 5-6'). Within these, are folders for specific learning units regardless of subject (e.g. 'Non-chronological Reports' or 'Databases', etc). Children are taught to save all learning into the appropriate folders here with an appropriate file name (which will usually include their first name too). This allows teachers to select entire units of learning for offline viewing (we make quite heavy use of 'Offline Files' on teacher's laptops) or as evidence for whatever without having to trawl through individual folders.

 

Within the 'Pupil's Learning' folder, there is also another folder ('Learning Resources') which has read only access for child accounts where staff place templates or other resources for specific learning units.

 

Staff accounts take the form of 'first initial+surname' and they are forced to change passwords every 120 days (roughly once a term). Passwords must be at least 6 characters long and be alphanumeric.

 

Dave

[gwendes]

Malice is so rare in primaries that the time and work invested in maintaining a 'secure' system generally isn't worth it. I generally explain the different ways things can be done and ask what the school want me to put in place.

 

Secondaries are a very different world!