So much lurks in cyberspace that can harm kids. Here’s how to keep your students safe online. Thanks to CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act), schools that request E-Rate funding are required to put Internet filters and other safety features in place to shield students from pornography and other inappropriate images. But keeping students safe online isn’t that …
by Lisa McComsey 
If you’re still running your school help desk the old-fashioned way, it’s time to automate. So you are the school help desk. Do you find yourself: Digging through a messy pile of trouble tickets? Frantically searching emails for work requests? Spending hours on the phone assigning tasks and chasing down your repair team? Getting bombarded …
by Lisa McComsey 
“Wi-Fi is safe.” “Wi-Fi is dangerous.” Hear both sides of the debate and decide where you fall. Our homes, businesses, schools, coffee shops, and even airplanes are all going wireless, allowing us to be connected 24/7. It’s incredibly convenient—and most of us can’t imagine life without Wi-Fi. But is Wi-Fi safe? There’s a lot of …
by Lisa McComsey 
The world is going HTTPS. Is your school prepared? The recent and rapid adoption of HTTPS (hyper text transfer protocol secure) has made Internet use safer. By encrypting data over a secure socket layer (SSL), the communication between a client (e.g., a browser) and the server can’t be intercepted—which protects against eavesdropping, tampering, and man-in-the-middle …
by Lisa McComsey 
Slow Wi-Fi is exasperating. Here’s what’s slowing you down to snail’s pace—and what you can do about it. With nearly 90 percent of K–12 schools allowing students and staff to use personal devices on their networks, BYOD offers tremendous learning and cost-saving opportunities. But it also means a lot of people are vying to get—and …
by Lisa McComsey 
Yes, a hacked website can happen to your school. Here, the myths, misinformation, and truths. Plus, tips for protecting yourself. If you surfed the Internet in 1994, you could probably have gone to all 3,000 websites. (And back then, a hacked website was rare.) Today, you’d be hard pressed to visit even a tiny fraction …
by Lisa McComsey 
Sexting can have severe repercussions for K-12 students. Embarrassment is just the beginning. A well-known politician posts a photo of his private parts on Twitter. The image gets leaked, he suffers humiliation, and the Congressman ultimately resigns in disgrace. Now there’s an entire Wikipedia article devoted to the incident. “Sexting for adults” one thing. But when an underage …
by Lisa McComsey 
Email phishing scams are flooding the Internet: How not to get lured in. Nearly 85 percent of American and British organizations have been victims of phishing attacks, most delivered by email (other popular vehicles include mobile devices, social media, and phone calls). Financial loss, productivity slowdown, and reputation damage are just some of the consequences …
by Lisa McComsey 
An old cybercrime that first surfaced in the late ‘80s, ransomware has re-emerged as a sinister plague. It can infect school networks—and pretty much everyone else on the planet who has access to a computer and the Internet. According to the FBI, ransomware victims in the U.S. doled out $209 million in first quarter 2016, compared …
by Lisa McComsey 
Are your endusers vulnerable to social engineering? The scammers are counting on it. You’ve gone to great lengths to protect your school network with firewalls, filters, and anti-virus software. But you’ve still got a weak link (or hundreds). It’s called your end-user. Any one of staff members or students could fall for a social-engineering scam that devastates …
by Lisa McComsey FROM OUR BLOG
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