Author Archives: Nicola Cook

The vast majority of us are reusing passwords in the workplace, despite receiving security training; according to the results of a survey by My1login, published in August 2021.   The survey showed that 87% of employees use the same password across … Continued

If you are a secondary school, or a trust with secondary schools, you are likely to be anticipating Freedom of Information requests for information about your teacher assessments this year.   You may also be thinking about pre-empting some of these … Continued

I’ve had a few questions recently about The Children’s Code, so I’ve written a summary I hope will be helpful: The Children’s Code (or Age Appropriate Design Code to give it its formal name) is a significant development in online … Continued

Cyber security is a crucial part of safe data protection practice and the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has developed a free training package aimed specifically at school staff.   The training material makes use of real-life case studies to … Continued

In the wake of the recent increase in ransomware attacks on schools (see March news post), I’m staying with the theme of cyber security this month and was interested to see the report from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre … Continued

At the end of a really busy term, this isn’t great timing but …. UK’s National Cyber Security Centre The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued another alert warning of an increased number of ransomware attacks affecting education … Continued

Freedom of Information (FOI) is another area where I quite often get queries from schools/trusts uncertain about what exactly it is that they need to publish in order to be compliant with the Act. What follows is an extract from … Continued

The end of the Brexit transition period (31 December 2020) may understandably not have been at the forefront of most schools’ and trusts’ minds as this term started.   However, I’ve had a few queries more recently so thought it could … Continued

I’ve had a few queries recently about the recording of Christmas performances to share with parents and the data protection implications of this. So, here are some things to consider data protection wise: Where will the recording be stored?  Will … Continued

With Google reporting that it detected on average 46,000 new phishing websites (Transparency Report) each week in 2020(!), I thought I would stay with the subject of cyber security this month and share some more resources I think are helpful … Continued