At Link ICT we have worked in schools for over 15 years and our industry knowledge means that we are well placed to offer ways for you to help your users to stay safe when browsing the internet and communicating through the web.
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Show your support for Safer Internet Day 2020 and utilise Safer Internet Day resources
Link ICT Services are supporters of Safer Internet Day 2020, and you can be too. By registering on their website you can help to share the message about Safer Internet Day and show your support. Safer Internet Day have collated a wealth of resources to help educators to teach young people how to stay safe on the internet. There are free, age appropriate, resources to help you to support your students and share with your staff here. You can also share the message throughout your organisation by organising an assembly or staff meeting to promote Safer Internet Day 2020. Finally, you could make use of your digital signage display to broadcast the Safer Internet Day message across your organisation.
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Use tools to help you to manage your internet
As well as spreading the Safer Internet Day 2020 message, you can also ensure that your web filtering is helping to keep adults and young people safe online. By using web filtering to its full advantage you can not only prevent users from accessing inappropriate material, but also provide notifications of those trying to access content that might not be appropriate.
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Watch out for phishing and scams
There are a number of ways that people may try and trick you into giving them information online. This can include emails asking you to share details or log into a website. Both adults and students benefit from knowledge of what to look out for in a suspicious email. The best way to ensure that you’re not clicking a dangerous link is to go to the website directly and log in from there. If you’re ever unsure about whether an email is malicious, reach out to your onsite technician or raise a support ticket.
Also be wary of quizzes on social media, particularly if they require you to enter personal information such as age, sex, date or place of birth, address, and names of family members or pets.
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Ensure that your IT network is secure
To prevent hacking and data being stolen there are a number of steps you can take. Teaching both staff and students about creating strong passwords can help everyone to stay safe online. Many organisations are now moving towards two factor verification, which means using two pieces of information to enable you to log into your accounts. This is something that Link ICT Services can support you in enabling.
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Keep devices and apps up-to-date
When you are asked to update your devices such as phone, laptop, tablet or computer it is important to do so. This is because they can often include important security fixes. The same goes for any apps you have installed on your devices. We have found that with so many devices, such as iPads, in schools and other organisations it can be difficult for our customers to ensure that they are updated manually. We recommend using mobile device management (MDM) to allow for the bulk update of devices to make sure updates are applied and no devices are missed.
We hope you can join us in Safer Internet Day on 11th February 2020 by utilising some of our tips and showing your support to keep young people safe. If you would like to talk to us and ask for any advice about how our IT support or services can help to keep your users safe online, please get in touch today.