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EdTech
Protect Parent Communications with Security
Tools and Education
Streamlined parent-teacher communications don’t just help with digital
overload — they limit the number of entry points for incoming threats.
by Autumn Whitefield-Madrano
When an employee of the Clinton Public School District in Mississippi
was doxxed, leaving the employee’s private information vulnerable to
public misuse, the district took action. But one of those actions —
suspending all social media — left stakeholders frustrated.
“Losing social media in the middle of the school year had a significant
impact on our communication efforts,” says Sandi Beason, public
information officer for the district. Parents, teachers and
administrators were left without the tool they’d all come to rely on
for everything from day-to-day announcements to emergency notifications.
The district brought in communications consultant Caron Blanton, who
led a survey and a series of focus groups to discover what qualities
communication systems must have to meet people’s needs. The results:
Stakeholders wanted a comprehensive communication tool that could serve
multiple needs, and they wanted social media back. The new question for
the district became how to implement these tools in a way that would
protect all participants without hampering the fluid communication
people depended upon.
Set the Right Expectations When Communicating with Parents
Blanton identified a few key recommendations: purchasing a secure mass
notification tool, potentially developing a custom app for the district
and reinstating the district’s Facebook page. But the solution wasn’t
just a technical one; it was human too. “Having the resources, both
human and technical, to protect student data is paramount,” Blanton
says. Marshalling policies and compliant behavior became a part of the
district’s mission.
First up: defining the rules. The district did reopen its Facebook
account, using the strongest security settings and posting an explicit
policy stating posts with personal information, abusive language and
falsehoods would be removed.
Districts can also turn to their most obvious skill: education. Making
sure parents know the rules of devices meant to be used at home and
school and understand how to minimize their own digital footprint where
their children are concerned can help them follow best practices.
“We’re building good cybercitizens on top of reading, writing and
arithmetic,” says Sheryl Abshire, former CTO for Calcasieu Parish
Public Schools in Louisiana. “But unfortunately, a lot of the online
world is not understood nor inspected by parents.”
Forgetting to update contact information is one area where parents
sometimes neglect their own cybercitizen responsibilities. It opens up
security vulnerabilities, both in parents missing out on crucial
communication and in releasing information to people it’s not intended
for. “We had a school lockdown, and a phone message went out to
parents,” Abshire says. “I got a call from someone who said, ‘I don’t
have a child at that school, but I’m betting there’s someone who used
to have this phone number who really wants to know this information.’”
Put Security Tools in Place to Mitigate Risk
Parents are only one part of the communication stream. IT teams can
help secure communication — external and otherwise — with a
comprehensive security system. Secure infrastructure using systems that
have a strong track record sets the stage. Symantec Endpoint Protection
Cloud, Cisco and Pure Storage Flashstack, G Suite for Education and
Microsoft for Education have led the way in tackling infrastructure
challenges. Hyperconverged infrastructure can have a role here too,
bringing with it ease of use.
Solutions that deliver full-spectrum protection should combine
cloud-based multiengine sandboxing, anti-virus, anti-malware, content
filtering, intrusion prevention and anti-spam services. Next-generation
endpoint security adds protection, particularly when students are using
devices both at school and home, as home networks may offer less
protection than campus connections. Instituting a regular patching
cadence alongside virtual patching programs can help ensure
vulnerabilities don’t reach devices.
Once secure infrastructure and IT policies are in place, districts can
look at unified mass communication tools that offer an all-in-one
solution that limits the number of entry points for threats. Custom
apps can offer tailored benefits to districts and put security in the
hands of internal teams, but they may be cost-prohibitive. Clinton
Public School District opted instead to purchase ParentSquare, a
unified mass communication tool that is securely hosted in the cloud by
Amazon Web Services. The app will be rolled out districtwide in the
fall after an aggressive campaign to educate parents and employees on
its uses.
“Parents have an expectation that the school district is trustworthy,”
Abshire says. “We have digital information on their children — health
information, children’s progress, assessments. We have a responsibility
to build that trust. Communication is one place to do that.”
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