As we all look forward to the festive season and wrapping up what has been an eventful year, we’d like to reassure you that we’re taking care of your school’s online safety and security – so you have one less thing to worry about.
2020 has been extra challenging… and as if we didn’t already have enough to think about, there’s been wave after wave of new Ransomware campaigns, DDoS attacks and online scams.
But it’s not all doom and gloom!
While the whole New Zealand education sector and telco community have been working out how to ensure ākonga have access to the internet, suitable devices and quality online resources – we’ve been busy beavering away to make sure there’s one less thing to take care of… your school’s online safety and security!
In many of our conversations over the years with principals, school leaders, educators, IT administrators and companies that support schools, “it just works” is a recurring phrase that keeps popping up, and our upgraded Managed Network has meant that we’re even better at ensuring this remains true.
What we’re doing
With that in mind we worked with schools, the Ministry of Education, CERT NZ, Netsafe and IT providers to put systems & processes in place, including reframing the way we provide our suite of online safety and security services. We’ve wrapped the most important elements and recommended settings into one easy to implement baseline level of protection called Safe & Secure Internet. Gone are the days of wondering whether you’ve implemented the right N4L services, or more importantly, if you have them configured appropriately.
Now it’s super easy! If you have our Safe & Secure Internet, then you have our baseline level of protection that we recommend for all schools. If you don’t, then it’s likely we’ve been in touch – but you can always reach out to our Helpdesk team on 0800 LEARNING to check if you have it.
So what’s included?
- Managed Network internet connection
- Web Filtering (including our recommended categories)
- Firewall (including our specific settings)
- DNS Threat Protection
- DDoS Protection
For more information check out our website here, or skip right into the technical details here.
So while 2020 may have been a bit of a write-off sending curveball after curveball your way, we’ve tried to help by making it that bit easier to stay safe and secure while browsing the web.
Here’s to a safe and happy holiday break – on and offline!
A couple of points to note
It’s important to remember that there’s no way to guarantee 100% protection from online threats or inappropriate content. There are other measures schools should take to help keep their online learning environments safe and secure, such as promoting digital citizenship and making sure that systems and software are up to date.
Also schools can have a safe and secure online learning environment by having appropriate settings applied via third party providers. However, N4L won’t be able to assess whether you meet our baseline level of protection.