Vulnerabilities and risks are inherent in all technologies. And while the increasing use of tech in the education sphere is a huge benefit for all, it isn’t without its share of issues.

Apps and IT

Many of the apps that are used by students and teachers to access their school information may not be properly vetted or controlled by district IT departments. That may leave doors open for criminal activity. A student or staff member may log into an account from multiple devices, or login at a coffee shop or on an unsecure network. Those instances in themselves are risks to data, but they also force us to pose the question of what to do about so-called shadow apps that are accessing the networks. 

The answer is Lumen Touch.

Lumen Touch software runs on a Linux operating system that is remotely managed by Lumen Touch. We maintain the updates and configurations of all services. We follow industry best practices for the services provided. Isolation of risk and standardization are core principals we use when determining the design and configurations of our services. We work under the assumption that all networks are potentially hostile. This includes other servers in the local network and clients’ servers across the web. 

Criminal Activity and EdTech

Schools have become the second-most sought-after organizations for cyberattacks. The demand on school IT departments to manage school technology has nearly doubled from five years ago. Networks, devices, and apps all require extensive management and monitoring, and the complexities in doing so are growing. Ransomware is an emergent and easy way for criminals to gain access to schools, especially when many people are using many different network devices. In addition, there have been state and federal responses to cyberattacks in schools, due to the nature of the information they collect – information that could have a large negative impact on students and their families. Phishing schemes are a common vulnerability in schools. When students or staff members click on suspicious links, they are opening their system to risks.

Lumen Touch hosting employs full-disk encryption and a server image created from scratch by Lumen Touch. This allows us to have full end-to-end encryption of client data, both in transit and at rest. Lumen Touch also manages backups and disaster recovery for you. Whether we host your site, or even if you have a server on-site, we perform daily encrypted backups that are stored off-site in another region of the United States. This gives us the flexibility to handle data restores for your site in the event of user error or catastrophic hardware failure. These restores can occur on your existing site, if applicable, or placed into a Lumen Touch hosted site.

Managing the risks associated with EdTech is a must for school districts. Lumen Touch is committed to ensuring student data security by providing remote monitoring of your site 24/7/365. On average, we track 160 data points per site that help us identify potential issues before they affect clients.

EdTech is the future of education, but technology without responsibility is dangerous. Lumen Touch considers student safety and data security with everything we do. At Lumen Touch, we are proud of our team that is driving excellence in education. We’d love to talk to you about how we can help support your school! Get in touch.