"Our children are our most important resource, and ensuring that they are safe
and secure in the schools across our country is our most important task.1"
Steven W. Edwards, VP, Youth National Crime Prevention Council
The Challenge:
Schools are often vulnerable targets for security threats – both cyber and physical – that can cause severe damage and compromise the safety of students and faculty. As the new year begins, schools continue to have a heightened focus on putting the right protective measures in place to ensure the security of their students.
Many schools routinely perform security audits to asess the risk of their current infrastructure and procedures. However, upgrades for security equipment such as cameras, access cards and updates to the hardware and software of a school’s IT infrastructure typically come in a reactive fashion after an issue occurs. Since this cost is usually not in the budget, business officers are often left struggling to pay for the upgrades, at a time when they are needed most.
Campus Security Risk Assessment
Every school would agree that security is a high priority. However, what varies greatly is the quality of security procedures and policies that are in place at any given school, with only few that evaluate how prone they are to risk on an ongoing basis. After evaluating a security audit, schools typically find themselves in one of three categories.
The Solution:
A proactive strategy to regularly review physical and virtual access points, evaluate security policies and procedures and replace outdated equipment can help to reduce the risk of threats at your school.
Keeping up with the latest information on cybercriminals, zero-day attacks and threats to the physical campus environment can be daunting as the threats to schools evolve and become more sophisticated every day. Putting the right resources in place and developing proactive funding models to invest in and support school security can help your school minimize security risks.
Source1: School Safety and Sscurity Toolkit, A Guide for Parents, Schools and Communities by the Youth National Crime Prevention Council
FY 16-17 | K12 Trend 1
It is critical that schools provide innovative technology to support enhanced learning opportunities for students in the classroom.
FY 16-17 | K12 Trend 2
Schools are often vulnerable targets for security threats - both cyber and physical - that can cause severe damage to the school and...
FY 16-17 | K12 Trend 3
As deferred maintenance backlogs continue to grow, schools feel the pressure to invest in their aging campuses. However, maintaining the...