News

We've been asked by some of our customers what they need to consider when thinking about using AI to improve job efficiency as a time saving exercise or part of CPD, so staff related.
This article puts together some available resources as an initial step.

Unfortunately, a school has declared a 'significant critical incident' after it was targeted in a cyber attack.

Regular cyber training for staff is crucial given the amount of systems involved in running organisations.  Schools and Trusts should be doing this annually as advised by the DfE Cyber Security Digital Standards.

Latest Update 23rd May (pm):

Lord Sikka reports on X at 4:12pm:
Because of the general election the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill passed by the Commons has fallen in the Lords.
Govt was seeking 24/7 powers to snoop on the bank accounts of recipients of benefits and state pension.
Govt avoided defeat in the Lords by giving in.

It is over for now...it is highly unlikely that a new administration (if there is one) will adopt this legislation. We

The DfE have announced a new update to the DfE Digital Cyber Security Standards for Schools and Colleges.

The BBC have recently reported that due to the number of cyber attacks on schools that the ICO have seen an increase of 55% since 2022 of cyber incidents in the education and childcare sector.

The ICO has published a report today about 'learning from the mistakes of others'.  Given that cyber security is a crucial part of protection information and it is important to note that security breaches frequently lead to information breaches.

NHS Dumfries and Galloway has confirmed some children’s mental health data has been published by criminals following a cyber attack.    

The aftermath of cyber attacks on schools and multi academy trusts is rarely documented or shared, so it was refreshing to see this video made in conjunction with GovernorHub.

The Vale Federation is made up of two special schools, Booker Park and Stocklake Park who have worked with Data Protection Education for a number of years on compliance and data protection. They are based in Aylesbury and are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people.

The DfE have recently published updates to their Data Protection toolkit.  Previously there had been very little guidance in the toolkit about how to respond to Subject Access Requests.  There is now a specific section on this and an extra update about responding to other data rights requests such as changing, deleting or restricting of personal information.

The DfE recently updated their guidance for practitioners providing safeguarding services for children, young people, parents and carers.  We have highlighted the changes below and what that might mean regarding data protection and data sharing.

The Government recently published the Cyber Security Breaches survey 2024. The survey has an annex which includes findings from samples of UK educational institutions.

A summary of the government Cyber Security Breaches 2024.  It is an official set of statistics produced by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in partnership with the Home Office. The findings of this survey provide a comprehensive description of cyber security for a representative sample of UK organisations, which provides a snapshot of UK cyber resilience at this point in time.

The ICO recently published some guidance about what to do if you receive an FOI request generated by Artificial Intelligence.

We've launched a social media best practice area which brings together all privacy considerations around the use of social media.

We've launched a lettings best practice area which brings together all privacy considerations around renting out a building or room in your organisation.

The UK Safer Internet Centre has announced a public consultation for appropriate filtering and monitoring definitions.

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) and MFA bombing and how cyber criminals are using it to break into accounts.

We recently published a series of articles on all things social media, which also included information about protecting your social media accounts.  The South East Cyber Resilience Centre has recently published a blog about this:

Our customers all have access to the checklists in our Knowledge Bank user portal.  We have checklists for all areas of compliance around data protection and cyber security, as well as some practical ones for schools and trusts.  But why are checklists a good tool?