Keeping data secure

The hacking of Sony Corporation computers has shown, once again, that everyone is vulnerable to cyber crime. The protection of data is particularly important to government agencies, schools, hospitals and the like, which deal in personally identifiable information.

Island Park Schools have three separate servers for important data that are not interconnected and only one has web access according to Superintendent of Schools Rosmarie Bovino. The system that carries student information is isolated from the other two servers, any information shared is only sent to BOCES, that information has to be verified by the teachers, the school principal and by the superintendent, and no other entity has the ability to upload to that server.

There is another server for administration, which is also isolated, and a third, which does have Internet access. The last server is used to bring lessons in from the cloud, and for student research. It connects to the smart boards in each classroom, and to classroom computers. Teachers may use it to teach lessons, or it can be used for long distance instruction, for example, a lecture by a person who is physically far away.

Bovino explained that schools must comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), http://www.coppa.org/coppa.htm. That site defines who needs to be protected, what internet sites must do to provide that protection, and what those who allow access to or use the internet must do.