As the summer holidays rapidly approach no doubt you will be planning your pimms parties, G&Ts in the sun and trying to decide between the paddling pool or the beach to cool down. Or if you live in the real world, you’ll be facing constant battles with teenagers, TVs, broadband, data security, and device usage.
Over the last year SWGfL have produced a range of articles, blogs and case studies to reflect the battles we face not only at school but at home as well.
Parenting in a digital age
What will your kids be doing this holiday? As a parent it’s virtually impossible to keep track of your children 24/7, unless you track their phone, but let’s not go there!
Will they be outside soaking up the sun, or will you be having a constant battle to get them off their phones and engaged in family life?! Let’s face it, for many of us it’s a daily struggle. I can’t be the only one who has to wrestle their Ipad off a toddler…am I?!
To help, our “parenting in a digital age” series touches on many topics from technological toddlers to gaming, body image to managing screen time. We’ve seen sexting in our soaps, while social media is rarely out of the news, especially its impact on the mental health of children, and it often feels as if there is a new app out every day.
If, like me, you find it a struggle to keep up, then sit back, grab your drink and take a scroll through our articles, which we hope have provided some useful advice for parents in this digital era.
Ransomware and malware attacks
Direct Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and ransomware emails are a daily occurrence, but very rarely make the news.
This year has been an exception; we’ve seen teenage cyber attackers, and the now infamous WannaCry ransomware attack which grounded the NHS. We’ve offered advice and guidance on a host of topics around the importance of data security, the risks of ransomware and how to avoid them, and keeping your data safe online.
Our spam filters are an often forgotten element of our connectivity service to schools . These sit there quietly plucking out nasty content so that our customers don’t have to see it. At the beginning of the month we protected over 50 customers from emails potentially containing the Petya ransomware.
In just one week over 42.53 million emails will pass through the network, 95% of these will be spam. That means we block over 40million spam emails a week, and prevent over 12,000 viruses from affecting our customers.
Budgets and clouds
Every year schools face tougher and tougher budget cuts, this year has been no exception. SWGfL has worked hard to drive down prices with suppliers and pass these on to our customers. From renewing existing contracts to switching connectivity type, schools are able to save themselves thousands of pounds.
But with all this bandwidth available, what are schools doing with it? More and more we look to the cloud to save us money and help us work more effectively. Whether you are just thinking about it or have taken the plunge, Rethink cloud can help you on your journey.
So now that you know how to stay safe, cool and appropriate online, it’s time to turn off, tune out and take a break. We look forward to welcoming you back in September.
