Exploring security challenges to schools, a new survey shows that public schools are investing their limited IT dollars for physical safety over network security. A second survey from EDUCAUSE marks security as a rising concern in higher education.

The 2008 School Safety Index, from CDW Government, Inc, shows that tools such as mass notification and security cameras have increased the physical safety score by 39 percent over 2007. During the same time period, the cyber safety score declined by 25 percent.

Key findings include:

• More than half of districts are using network access control (NAC) to protect data and ensure that only authorized users and approved applications access their networks.
• Rural districts lead NAC adoption at 60 percent, followed by suburban districts at 54 percent and urban districts at 45 percent. While 89 percent of districts authenticate users to their networks, there is still room for improvement, as 16 percent (mainly urban and rural districts) still use general log-ons, rather than unique names or passwords exposing themselves to a potential security breach.
• Despite increased use of cyber security tools and dedicated attention to IT security, reported cyber security breaches are up in every segment but urban. Overall, 14 percent of districts report at least one IT security breach in the last 12 months, up from 9 percent in 2007.
• Nearly half of districts are utilizing mass notification systems, and 70 percent are using security cameras; 29 percent of districts report that security cameras have had a positive impact on district safety
• Districts should consider the instant access that IP security cameras can give their local police. While more schools are using security cameras, only a small number of districts give their local police force the ability to access digital footage in real-time during an emergency.

Security in Higher Education

The annual EDUCAUSE survey identifies top-ten issues and shifting concerns for critical challenges of IT leaders in higher education. Their work shows that Security and Administrative/ERP Systems have topped Funding as the key issue for information technology in higher education. "This issue has two dimensions, one in the larger sense of fostering culture change and the other in the sense of developing a process for handling IT changes that are made on a regular basis (e.g., patches, upgrades, replacements) and that can be very disruptive if there is no change management process in place."

Staffing/HR Management/Training emerged among issues of strategic importance for the first time since 2001. At that time, Y2K prompted the concern. Now there is a renewed awareness among CIOs of the challenges of recruiting, remunerating, and retaining a skilled IT staff. Specialties are needed in emerging areas such security, identity management, and instructional design/technology.

The Top Ten IT issues for higher education are:

• Security
• Administrative/ERP/Information Systems
• Funding IT
• Infrastructure
• Identity/Access Management
• Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity
• Governance, Organization, and Leadership
• Change Management
• E-Learning / Distributed Teaching and Learning
• Staffing / HR Management / Training

Sources: CDW-G Press Release: K-12 Schools' Physical Safety Improves, While Cyber Safety Declines, According to the 2008 CDW-G School Safety Index; 2008 School Safety Report; EDUCAUSE Press Release, Top-Ten IT Issues in Higher Education: EDUCAUSE 2008 Survey Results; EDUCAUSE journal article on Top-Ten IT Issues, 2008