PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
BullGuard says the rise of technology has done nothing to ease the pressure of the ‘back to school’ period. Head of global sales Steve Hicks advises how to get schools and parents to keep their tech in check.
Technology may bring with it concerns around the ‘dark side’ of the online world, but this is an opportunity for retailers to shine, offering invaluable advice on how to protect schools, parents and their children from digital dangers.
Children have a penchant for being inquisitive and are far more likely to run into trouble online. Alongside antivirus protection, parental controls on a smartphone allow parents to monitor messages, calls, photos and installed apps. Devices can also be remotely located, locked or wiped.
With children now using a home computer for schoolwork, this also needs to be well protected, virus-free and offer parents a degree of control. A security suite can protect against viruses, offer powerful parental controls, a spamfilter and a safe browsing component to prevent families from stumbling across malicious websites.
These are all opportunities for retailers to help educate and inform in areas of digital security that could pose very real problems for modern-day parents and their children.
The UK Government’s National Education Network outlines 10 important steps to protect a school’s network, including:
- Ensuring a firewall is in place, as well as filters for malicious and inappropriate content;
- Technical protection to detect and prevent malware and malicious code;
- Protection against sources such as email attachments, social media and malicious websites;
- Control over the use of removable devices such as flash drives that could spread malware. This is another opportunity for retailers to seek opportunities to help.
Security software with identity and social media protection can monitor the use of websites and flag inappropriate content, and with malware protection and tools like safe browsing and a spamfilter, schools can tick many of these boxes in one go.
Tablets used in classrooms can also benefit from parental controls to monitor behaviour and antivirus. Schools can benefit hugely from data backup too – automating backups for children’s work can avoid headaches and simplify scenarios where a tablet may need to be ‘wiped’ to provide a new class with a clean slate.
The digital revolution means there’s even more to do to prepare for a new term, but by providing assistance at each stage, and help relieve the stress of the school year.
About the author
Steve Hicks is BullGuard’s head of global sales.
www.bullguard.co.uk
