Information Security in Education

A hand reaching out of a monitor.

Information Security in Education

Information security for educators.

This wikibook is an introduction to information security aimed primarily at K-12 administrators, educators, and (to a lesser extent) technology staff. Security is an important issue for many reasons, but security professionals have found that actions taken to increase security often have a minimal, or even opposite, effect.

While many products and marketing representatives may be found to provide information to school leaders on information security, it may be difficult to find unbiased information that addresses many of the issues. Two books used in the research for this wikibook stand out for their authority and point-of-view. The first is Secrets and Lies by Bruce Schneier, one of the world's best know security experts (see ref list below). The second is Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, a respected authority on Internet privacy and policy issues (especially those related to young people)(Doctorow, 2008)..

Secrets and Lies provides a broad overview of how to think about and plan for security issues. It includes countless information security examples from the real world. This is the book to provide a contextual framework on information security to educational leaders. Little Brother has been acclaimed as a modern-day version of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four Like Orwell's work, it provides a vivid warning about ways that excessive security may have long-reaching unanticipated undesirable effects. Little Brother takes place partly in an American high school, and it is written from the perspective of today's youth culture. This is the book to provide the human side of information security for educational leaders. (note: Little Brother is also available for free download from the author's website.)

Table of Contents

1. School Hacking
2. Legal Issues
3. Security Awareness
4. Administrator Awareness
5. Cryptography
6. Security Regulations
7. Authentication: Safeguarding Passwords
8. Professional Development
9. Network Defenses
10. Case Studies
11. Security Policies for Mobile Devices
12. Malicious Software