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This month Luke Doneghan, XMA's Mobility Product Manager talks aboutthe latest issues around mobility products in the education market....

Is your education data safe?

With the mobility market having grown by 50% in the past year, and with the pioneering Universal Home Access programme just around the corner, notebooks and mobility devices are poised to shape and define the learning environment well into the next decade.

There are fantastic benefits to the mobile learning experience – greater connectivity to learning resources, an online community where insights and materials can be shared by all, as well as engaging parents and other stakeholders into the learning process. And connectivity equals community - the advent of a true online learning community available 24/7 to all, with the school at the heart, represents a major leap forward in how we educate in the 21st century.

Yet whilst this innovation may play a pivotal role in the school environment and beyond, how can we be sure that the learning environment is still safe and protected? Greater connectivity invariably means more threats to the secure learning environment, be they through lost notebooks, or more serious breaches of the online learning environment.

This can be costly both socially and economically – we’ve all heard the recent horror stories of unencrypted data leaking from both Corporate and Public Sector bodies in the past year – most of which could easily have been avoided if some simple measures were taken. Perhaps more frightening is how much notice is being taken of this issue – a recent promotion by Kensington to supply laptop locks to 150 MPs for free resulted in only 8 taking up the offer, despite the news that over 1,000 government laptops have been lost in the past decade.

XMA can offer a range of services and products to eradicate the most common threats to security of data in learning environment. Working with vendors like LapsafeKeepITSecure andKensington we can provide a number of simple, cost effective devices to cover all learning environments. KeepITSecure are working on a cost effective range of solutions for netbooks which are likely to come into prominence in Education in the coming months.

Data on laptops can be encrypted easily and cheaply, though in the education environment there is an argument for simply not storing any sensitive information on mobile devices unless absolutely necessary. A more effective solution may be by using secure USB Flash Drives such as the Kingston DataTraveller Secure, where any sensitive data that needs to be portable can be transported safely and securely at all times.

Ultimately mobility devices will present a risk by their very nature – but one that can be vastly reduced by taking simple, cost effective measures that will pay for themselves in the medium to long term. And, as the true benefits of a truly mobile, ubiquitous learning environment become apparent in the coming years, so will the benefits of a more thorough approach to managing security and theft risks.

For further details on how XMA can help the provision of ICT in your school please speak to your Account Manager or email the education team direct at education.team@xma.co.uk. 

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