Policy Corner Using Personal

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Wi-Fi Safety

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IMD ConnectionSummer Supplement 2013

EducateCelebrateInnovate

Students and their parents entrust GCPS with their personal information, expecting that this information will

be used by the schools to serve the needs of the students effectively and efficiently. At GCPS and in the schools, we maintain and use personal information for a variety of educational purposes while students are in school. To protect the privacy of students and their families, school staff is legally and ethically responsible for safeguarding the information collected about and from students. GCPS has an obligation to protect the confidentiality of student information.

Many federal and state laws and regulations related to maintaining and releasing student information must be followed. For almost 40 years, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 provided guidance for handling student information within an educational institution.

This article provides examples of actions and procedures as well as guidelines for deciding what is needed to ensure the privacy of student information. The following check list is intended to provide a general overview of security practices that teachers and staff can employ to protect sensitive student information.

CHECKLIST:• Access student records only on authorized

applications

• Do not access student information unnessarily. ◦ Do you really need to see this data? ◦ Is this data relevant to your job task?

• Unless you have special permission, do not transmit student records in: ◦ Email ◦ Instant messaging

• Unless you have special permission, do not store student records on: ◦ A laboratory desktop computer ◦ Any computer that is not professionally

managed, such as your home computer ◦ A personal laptop, PDA or smart phone or

other portable devices ◦ Removable media such as CDs, DVDs

and USB thumb drives

Finally, make sure that you are deleting any data on your non-GCPS equipment immediately after use. Thanks to various portals, teachers have more access to data than ever before on many devices connected to the internet. Build a habit now to delete any information that you download from the portals as soon as you are done using the data.

Cyber Security Checklist for Protecting Student Information

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Do NOT keep any student data or confidential information on your

personal computer

Q: I plan on using the Go.Gwinnett portal to prepare for my classes next year. Since I am moving to another school next year, I won’t have my laptop this summer and will be using my personal computer. Is that allowed?

A: Using your personal computer to access GCPS information is allowed, but there are a few things to remember:

• If members of your family or others use that computer, make sure to protect anything with student data. Use a flash or thumb drive, a separate hard drive, or segregated computer account to protect your information

• Stay aware of the items left on your home printer or on the computer desktop

• Get in the habit of emptying your browser cache, which will delete all of the temporary files stored by your browser

◦ In Internet Explorer 8 or above, choose Tools > Internet Options > General tab. In the “Browsing history” section, choose “Delete”

◦ In Firefox, go to Tools > Clear Recent History ◦ In Chrome, click the “Menu” button and go to History,

then click “Clear browsing data”

As a GCPS employee, remember that data security is one of your responsibilities! Make sure to protect student and sensitive data from others!

Join GCPS TV in taking a look back at some of our favorite

stories for the 2012-2013 school year by clicking on the links below:

Kanoheda Elementary celebrates Peace Day 2012

Students at Duluth High historically take the top spots in the National Geography Challenge

Mill Creek High Principal, Dr. Jim Markham, retires - click here for a glimpse of his 40 years of service in education

GCPS STARs program helps at-risk Freshmen at Norcross High

Two brothers from Crews Middle and Brookwood Elementary are top spellers in the GCPS Spelling Bee

Shiloh Elementary’s birthday tribute to their beloved lunch lady, “Granny” Strickland

Elementary schools celebrate the 100th day of school

A quick glimpse of our annual spring musical showcase of the 2013 Elementary Honor Chorus

To view more GCPS TV FOCUS Moments, visit http://www.gwinnett.k12.ga.us/gcpstv/video_pages/focus_moments.html. data limits

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You may know the basics of using Word, Excel, PowerPoint and various MS Office applications, but by learning just a few new “tech tricks,” you can become more efficient and versatile. That’s why we originated Tech Tips, a one-stop resource that shows you how to make your workday more efficient when using technology. In this edition of the IMD Connection Summer Supplement, we are providing a bonus Tech Tip - Turn Word Tables Into Design Elements

PowerPoint: Adding Custom Shapes

Although Powerpoint has a vast shape library, there may be times when you need to add a custom shape to a presentation. Fortunately, Powerpoint offers an easy solution to help users

modify existing shapes to suit their needs. This Tech Tip has been tested with Powerpoint 2010.

Turn Word Tables Into Design Elements

By default, inserting a table into a Word document gets you a grid, which is fine most of the time. But when you want to move beyond a simple table and create an attractive element on the page, you need to know a few formatting tricks. Use this link to discover a few simple techniques that will enable you to quickly improve the appearance of your tables without going overboard or wasting time with confusing options.

Policy Corner R-E-W-I-N-D

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Wi-Fi hotspots are a blessing for travelers and anyone who just wants to do a little work or Web surfing. Connecting is convenient, and it helps users avoid going over their cellular data limits.

If you are not careful about using free public Wi-Fi, however, strangers can snoop on your email and social network conversations. Worse, if you are too casual about mobile banking or shopping, you could end up with a hacked bank account or credit card account.

Hackers with routers and readily available software set up rogue hot spots for spying and serving you fake websites. You and your tablet will think you are connecting to the coffee shop’s Wi-Fi, but you’ve fallen into a trap. Despite the risks, you can protect yourself and thwart the bad guys. Here are some precautions to take whenever you access public Wi-Fi that can keep your computer and its information safe from unwanted eyes.

Turn Off Sharing

If you use a laptop, you might have it set to share files and folders with other computers at work or home. You don’t want these settings on when you’re using a public network.Windows Vista, 7 and 8 make it simple to automate your sharing settings. (Click on the links for details.) When connecting to a public hotspot for the first time, Windows asks for a location type. Make sure you set it to “public.” This will automatically modify sharing settings for maximum safety.

Check Before You Connect To Wi-Fi Networks

It’s handy when your smartphone, tablet and laptop automatically connect to your home and work networks, but that can lead to trouble when you’re outside the safety of home or the GCPS network.

Hackers often give their rogue hotspots generic names such as Coffee Shop, Linksys or AT&T Wireless. Be extremely cautious here. A legit public Wi-Fi site will ask you to log on to a Web page before you can complete the connection. You want to be certain you are connecting to the router of the business. Tweak your device settings so you have to manually join networks in public. Then verify with a store employee that you are connecting to the correct network.

You might think that an establishment with password-protected Wi-Fi is safer, but that’s not the case. Passwords are good for keeping people out of your home network, but for public networks, anyone can join. Once a hacker is on, your devices are accessible.

When you are using a Windows computer, the yellow shield icon warns you when a network is unsecured.

Be Smart About Mobile Banking And Shopping

It is best to wait until you are at home to do any online banking or shopping. If you must make an emergency balance transfer or an immediate purchase, it’s safer to use a cellular connection instead of Wi-Fi.

When banking, use your institution’s official app and sign up for any extra security that your bank offers. Many banks and credit unions have programs that send a text message with either a code to authorize a transaction or notification of a completed transaction.

Look For The Padlock

Even if you’re on public Wi-Fi, most sensitive sites use SSL encryption to scramble the information that passes between your device and the Web server. Look for the HTTPS and a padlock icon in your browser’s address bar instead of HTTP.

You have to stay vigilant, though. Encryption kicks in at different stages on different sites. If a log-in page isn’t encrypted, a hacker could intercept your information with little trouble. Make sure your email program, Facebook and Twitter accounts (if you have them) are also configured to take advantage of secure HTTPS browsing.

What’s In Your Files?

GCPS laptops are regularly updated with Microsoft anti-virus and firewall protection when connected to the wired network. However, protection is only as good as the last update. For example, a teacher whose laptop is off the GCPS network during summer break may not have up-to-date anti-virus and firewall protection when using a public network. The protection on the teacher’s laptop may not keep snoops out of its system or files.

Because of the low level of encryption, if any, at public Wi-Fi hotspots, beware of the types of information you might transmit through or retain on a laptop. Assume that what you transmit will be read by a third party. Save downloading sensitive student information for times when you’re fully protected. Access to the GCPS portal is secure, however once sensitive information is on your laptop it could be accessible (unless it is encrypted) to hackers. ( pg 4)

WI-FI Safety

Send your comments, ideas, and news to IMD Connection Newsletter via Lotus Notes.

To access the newsletters online, go to http://gwinnett.k12.ga.us/gcps-imdweb01.nsf/pages/

newsletters

At IMD Communication Web Page, click on “Newsletters” under the QuickLinks to access previous IMD Connection

Newsletters

a publication of the gcps information management division

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WI-FI Safety (cont.)Don’t Save Passwords

Web sites and browsers are forever asking if you want to save and store passwords. A general rule of thumb: you’re probably better off not storing your username and password anywhere, especially when it comes to banking sites and the like. That goes double for travelers who frequently connect via public Wi-Fi.

Look Over Your Shoulder

Not all dangers in the digital world are high-tech. While you’re watching the world go by in a busy airport lounge or library, a snoop could be literally looking over your shoulder with the hope that you might reveal a username, password or credit

card number.

It’s called shoulder surfing, and it still works. Preventing this is equally low-tech and effective. Just exercise a little healthy caution.

We all appreciate being able to stay connected when we are away from work or home. Whether we are traveling for vacations, off-site meetings or away-from-work trips, the Internet and e-mail are only a few clicks away thanks to Wi-Fi hotspots. By employing just a few precautions, you can make connecting away from home or work a safer experience.

When traveling in a foreign country, it’s always helpful to learn a few everyday words and phrases, and the world of computers is no different.

Words such as ‘WIFI’ or ‘P2P’ or ‘VoIP,’ for example are common phrases with which average computer users should familiarize themselves.

If you want to know what all those vague technology terms may mean or even if you are totally unaware of what they mean, here is our summary listing of the of technology terms. Look for more explanations of technology terms in future issues of IMD Connection.

Popular Technology Terms