pete

If you're targetting specific people (keylogger, hidden camera in their office) for an increased level of surveillance, you have to have a good reason why and it should be for a limited time only. You (HR) need to do an impact assessment and monitoring should be proportionate to the issue the employer needs to address. See: https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1064/the_employment_practices_code.pdf page 74 Mass surveillance (look at everyone, everyone knows you're doing it - say internet filtering, CCTV on the premises) is treated differently, provided you've got an AUP that explains this happens and people have signed it. TLDR: get your ducks in a row or you're scuppered.

Using pygame as an example, we call: pip install \\server\share\python\pythonversion\modules\pygame-1.9.3-cp36-cp36m-win_amd64.whl --no-cache-dir And based installed / installable on the presence of python (dependency) and whether C:\Program Files\python36\lib\site-packages\pygame-1.9.3.dist-info\description.rst exists or not.

We use LAPS (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/mt227395.aspx) to manage passwords. If you're setting passwords via GPO, any authenticated user can browse to sysvol and decrypt the password. See: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/grouppolicy/2009/04/22/passwords-in-group-policy-preferences-updated/ and https://adsecurity.org/?p=2288

Have you considered giving them exam accounts with separate homedirs that they can only login to designated laptops at set times? We do that combined with an "exams" print queue that the exams officer can release jobs from. We checked with all our exam boards beforehand and they were happy once we'd outlined why (guard against hardware failure) and how we'd secured it.

Surface Detail or Hydrogen Sonata would be good.

My point was "have a backup plan so you can function when some herbert takes out your fibre". I wasn't advising the OP to retain an onsite MIS. I'd jump at the chance for a clientless MIS* that works in a modern browser but because we're in darkest Lincolnshire with not-that-great provision we're more susceptible to twerps on tractors causing connectivity problems. *not an invitation for sales PMs.

Give yourself (or whoever needs access) the Data Protection Officer role in SIMS, close and relaunch SIMS and then it'll appear under Routines > Data Out > Person Data Output. Be aware that if staff misuse InTouch, the PDO report can contain personal data about other people, because it treats them as party to the communications. I'll quote from our Capita ticket. TLDR: If you do a general InTouch message from within a student record, don't add extra recipients or the PDO will contain personal data about other people.

We have offsite functionality to message parents. We have a seperate BT phone that's powered via the local exchange. Super-critical info (don't feed Fred peanuts etc) is replicated elsewhere. IT critical info for DR needs is replicated to Office 365. We have semi-offsite (separate building with decent fire gap) backups in addition to normal backups. We know we can restore the SIMS VM and a DC to spare hardware (no room in other building for a full "servers", just a DR box stuffed with disks). Or I can install SIMS on a random laptop and restore the data backups. If you're storing flammable material in the server room, it's not a server room and the school is likely in violation of "appropriate physical controls" if random staff are going in there to get paper.

What's the SLA like on your internet connection? Is there decent alternate provision (4G coverage / MiFi 4G dongle(s) / backup adsl connection*) should you have an extended internet outage and need MIS access? If you haven't, factor in putting that into place at each school in the MAT as part of your costings. *which admittedly will connect via the same BT exchange, but if the outage is RBC/other provider related you've still got access to your MIS.

We have an outdoor gate with a Net2 entry panel on each side. The panel on the outside of the gate works flawlessly. The panel on the inside of the gate sometimes locks up with just the LCD screen functional. Removing and re-applying PoE power to reboot it makes it functional again. Problems can re-occur within a day/week/two weeks. There doesn't (as far as we can tell) appear to be a common theme as to why it happens. Both are powered via external-grade ethernet cabling from the same Net2 PoE switch module attached to the same Net2 controller. The configuration of each reader in the Net2 software is identical (beyond tagging one as "inside" and the other as "outside"). The switch module has been replaced (there was a possible known issue with the batch it was part of). The cabling has been re-terminated. When the panel inside the gate fails, the RFID reader, camera and keypad no longer work. If it was connected to a decent PoE switch I could graph power metrics and look for spikes / dips, but the Net2 module is a dumb switch and there's not a whole lot of diagnostic info in the software itself. I can see when I restore functionality (causes tamper event) but there's no "hey, this stopped working" or "I couldn't open the door" because the reader isn't functioning enough to report that. Our installer is looking into it, but any ideas? Of the 10 readers we have, this is the only problematic one.

@jmak I'd say the cleaner does need to know of people who shouldn't be on school premises. They don't necessarily need to know the context, but for things like after-school clubs and fixtures, the cleaner is likely to be around and should know how to handle it/escalate it. @elsiegee40 We did the same data protection briefing with our cleaners that we did with everyone else. They're the last line of defence in the "wait, this shouldn't be in a paper recycling bin" campaign and are pretty good at bringing problems to our attention. They do work for the school rather than a subcontractor. HOY offices are shared (lower school and upper school offices) so for reasons of confidentiality and not annoying co-workers, meetings with external parties are held in one of our meeting rooms which just have Y12/13 artwork on the walls.

Heads of Year have a board in their office with photo + full name for all the kids in their year. This is mainly for "what does Fred look like" purposes. HOY offices are locked when unoccupied. Lists for clubs / expeditions / sports fixtures often have a list of names pinned up on a noticeboard somewhere. This is so the kids and staff know who's participating / supposed to be participating. Kids with severe allergies have their name and photos on an under-counter board in the canteen where the checkout operator / catering staff can see but customers can't. This also appears on the till (cashless catering with allergy indicator) during purchases.

That's just crazy talk. Next you'll be expecting them not to show SQL passwords in the process list when you launch Exams Organiser. -- In case anyone's still not aware, if you're using SIMS SQL auth, the user (and anyone with admin rights to the workstation running the SIMS client), can see SIMS passwords in the clear when things like Options, Exams Organiser and T6 are launched. TLDR: don't use SQL auth. It completely breaks accountability.

Currently in SIMS you can: Delete everything about a person (whole record) Delete nothing about a person ...and you have to do that one at a time. You can't (for example) say "OK, for this year's leavers delete the data fields X,Y and Z but leave everything else". From the Summer 2018 release (assuming they don't delay the feature), you'll be able to delete parts of the student records (ethnicity, attendance, etc) in bulk if they're no longer necessary. You will also be able to delete whole student records in bulk. The IRMS Toolkit is a good start (with reference to legislation), but it doesn't cover everything. IRMS Schools Toolkit - Information and Records Management Society (PDF at bottom of page)

It is a cop-out, hence "maintains" in my summary, but if a school is storing data about people unencrypted on a device that anyone can touch, they're breaking the law. We can't keep kicking Capita about their lax attitude and not also kick bob@randomschool if they don't do something about the SIMS server in the copier room. We know, my original post wasn't celebratory. It was more "Oh FFS".

Y'see I deliberately ignored that to see how long it'd take for them to realise.

Pfft, containers are so 1979. (Yes, I'm aware of the differences between chroot jails and containers. I'm referring more to IT's habit of "everything old is new again")

Groupcall exports the information that the customer (Microlibrarian Systems in this case) asks them to export. MLS need to ask Groupcall to amend the config. As far as I'm aware (I contacted them because I couldn't find anything on their Support site or KB), MLS have yet to publish anything about what they're doing for GDPR (their response was "sign up for the whiny hellhole* that is edoocoo.com and join our circle") and haven't updated the Groupcall report definitions that pull information they don't need. *not their exact words, but it is a whiny hellhole.

Requires a MyAccount login. https://myaccount.capita-cs.co.uk/Notifications/GDPR-Questions-Answered-from-the-DfE-of-MIS-Suppliers/ Short-sh version: Granular deletion of pupil data = Summer 2018 Granular deletion of staff data = Autumn 2018 Maintains SIMS is secure because they have permission groups and people store servers in locked rooms with antivirus and malware protection. Fails to address lack of audit trail.

^ Finance retention is typically 7yrs/current year +6yrs. Limitation Act 1980 section 2 states personnel file should be retained for 6yrs after employment ends. Records held under Retirement Benefits Schemes (Information Powers) Regulations 1995 = 6yrs+current Accidents = 6-12yrs (depending on nature of accident) Child Protection allegations against a staff member = 10yrs or normal retirement age, whichever is longer. Why yes, I have been working with the IRMS Toolkit a lot recently.

If someone has a login to SIMS and is given permission to change sensitive personal data in module "X", there is no customer-accessible audit trail as to what they changed and when that change was made. What about the medical data? Behaviour incidents? Exam entries? Personnel? Behaviour? Personal data about staff, students and parents? I remain unconvinced.

Nope. The DPIA for the use of SIMS is going to be interesting. "So, you put all this sensitive personal, medical, and other data into it?" Right "And everyone's got their own login?" Yup "So you can link actions done to a specific person?" Nope "Seriously?" Yup "So anyone can log into SIMS, access or change whatever their permissions allow and there's no way of knowing who did what?" Precisely. "What has the supplier said?" 'ooh it's really tricky' and then they hide from us. "So we're categorising this as 'WTF, who thought this was a good idea?'" Pretty much.

Has anyone got a good OCR tool that can be pointed at a folder tree and told "find me anything in there that's an image file with specific words in?" Searchable docs are easy-ish (FSRM > Classification Management), images and image-based PDFs are hard.

We have it. If staff encourage the use of and build it into their revision schemes / homework, it works. English (for example) make good use of it here. We run twilight sessions by people who like it so existing and new staff can see what other depts are doing. We've had SAM Learning and GCSEPod, GCSEPod is better provided staff are engaged.

(Assumes access to encrypted laptop with Sage gubbins on). If a finance person goes home and tests it from their house, is it fine? If it's Sage 200, have you run through the Azure speed tests? Azure Speed Test edit: What @FN-GM said too. We have a "Terrible Finance Software" custom category in SW with whitelist, no auth required and no HTTPS interception provided source location is a Finance computer.