Role of Teachers and Students in School Cyber Incident Response Plan

How to collaborate in the frames of the School Cyber Incident Response Plan?

Only a safe and secure learning environment lets students and teachers develop their full potential. That’s why cybersecurity must be a priority in schools that embrace digital learning tools.

Achieving this goal isn’t just a one-man show. It requires everyone in the school to contribute and support admins in their efforts. In this post, we show how teachers and students can collaborate according to the school Cyber Incident Response Plan.

What Is the Purpose of the Cyber Incident Response Plan in School?

The Cyber Incident Response Plan is a unique document tailored to your school’s digital needs. It depends on the number of users, the amount and type of files saved in the domain, the IT infrastructure, and your school’s cybersecurity context.

This plan is crucial for every educational institution that uses the cloud and stores sensitive data there. Because schools process a lot of personal information, they are among the most vulnerable targets for cybercriminals conducting ransomware attacks. 

The Cyber Incident Response Plan helps schools:

1. Respond quickly and effectively when a cyber incident occurs according to the school’s established procedures, roles, and responsibilities.
2. Reduce damage caused by a cyber incident, such as personal information leakage, school data breaches, and financial and reputational losses.
3. Improve cybersecurity response and awareness to prevent incidents in the future and manage them better when they occur. 

What Educators Should Know about Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity refers to all the school’s actions to protect its network, users, devices, and resources from online threats. Among the most common cyber risks to schools are unauthorized access to information (data breaches and leaks), malware infections, phishing, ransomware attacks, and cyberbullying.

A cyber attack may seem unrealistic for some teachers, but actually, it can happen in any school at any time. Using Google Classroom or other e-learning tools and saving data in the cloud means you can fall victim to cybercriminals.

Cybersecurity at school relies on trust, knowledge, and collaboration between all domain users. Let’s see how teachers and students can contribute to effective cyber incident management.

Role of Teachers in Cyber Incident Response Plan

Teachers play an essential role in cyber risk management. They connect students, whose devices may be sources of incidents, with the school admin and other decision-makers. Due to the direct relationship with students, teachers can truly impact their digital behavior and reduce cyber risks.

1. Cybersecurity Training and Student Awareness

Of course, how to teach students about online risks and cybersecurity best practices depends on the grade. However, teachers should always make students aware of bad individuals who misuse the internet and want to take advantage of user errors and vulnerabilities. Educators can explain with plain, non-technical language what online threats are and the best practices to prevent them.

Staying updated on current cyber risks and participating in all provided courses and workshops about cybersecurity and digital citizenship helps them convey this knowledge better.

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2. Student Monitoring

All teachers using Google Classroom can prevent a cyber threat from spreading across the school. With a screen monitoring tool, such as Teacher Assist, they can view and manage each student’s activity in real-time. 

However, it can be challenging to monitor all students’ screens manually at the same time. A web filter is another highly recommended solution to strengthen the school’s cybersecurity. Alert rules set by school admins will automatically notify them if a student tries to take forbidden activity, such as accessing a blocked website or searching for illegal content. 

Moreover, a comprehensive classroom management toolset can also detect specific keywords, audit third-party apps, provide student engagement insights, and much more across the entire school domain.

3. Identifying and Reporting Suspicious Activity

Teachers must be able to recognize a cyber risk in their own Google account and when a student notices anything suspicious: unauthorized access to a file or folder, unusual message from a class friend, fake bargain email, and so on.

Educators may be unsure if they are dealing with a cyber attack, but we recommend reporting it anyway to the school admin. Better safe than sorry if the danger is real. A quick reaction from the IT team can reduce the cybersecurity risk and prevent significant damage to school data or systems.

4. Internal Communication

Once a threat has been identified, we start addressing the proper cyber incident response. This is when efficient communication channels are particularly critical for successful crisis management.

At this stage, teachers need to follow established procedures to support the cybersecurity recovery process. Their role is to secure evidence of a cyber incident if it happened in their classroom and take care of their students. If classes need to be modified or suspended, teachers should keep calm in the classroom and update students about class reorganization as recommended by the school admin.

5. Post Incident Recovery

Hopefully, after mitigating the cyber risk in the school, everything will return to normal. However, to avoid this situation from happening again, teachers should share their feedback about the incident response with the IT department. 

Their experience helps to improve the Cyber Incident Response Plan, prepare for the next emergency, and react more efficiently if needed. Educators can also analyze incidents with students to increase their cybersecurity awareness.

Role of Students in Cyber Incident Response Plan

Let’s be honest: students are the weakest link in your school’s digital environment. That’s why their attitude toward cybersecurity is crucial. Although they are minors, teenagers, or even younger children, they also can play their part in protecting the school from cyber attacks.

1. Cybersecurity Best Practices

It’s never too early to educate students about digital citizenship. Students usually feel like fish in the water on the internet, but they must learn how to use it safely. Educators must explain and encourage students to follow cybersecurity best practices adjusted to their age and skills.

It includes using technology responsibly, protecting user privacy, and critical thinking about online content. Students should care about the personal information they share online, use strong passwords, and think twice before downloading unknown files and entering suspicious websites.

2. Identifying and Reporting Suspicious Activity

Cybersecurity education for students must also cover recognizing apparent risks such as phishing and scams. Other common cyber risks that affect students’ learning include inappropriate content, cyberbullying, online predators, and unauthorized access to personal data and devices.

The school needs to create a safe and trustworthy space for students to feel free to share any unusual activity they notice with teachers. Such reporting greatly streamlines further risk management and helps reduce more harm.

3. Student Feedback and Conscious Participation

Students who are responsible and educated digital citizens are of undeniable value for cybersecurity protection in school. As conscious partners for school staff, they can provide valuable feedback after an incident to reinforce cybersecurity. Their active participation in responding to cyber threats shapes their digital identity, which will benefit them in their future professional and private lives.

Closing Thoughts

School cybersecurity is a system of connected vessels where every member plays a significant role. Admins, teachers, and students need to work together in frames of the Cyber Incident Response Plan to optimize the school shield against cyber risks. This matters since schools increasingly use e-learning tools, which, with valuable personal data, make them easy targets for cybercriminals. 

Protect your school with solid cybersecurity education, detailed online activity monitoring, and web filtering. Contact us today to book a demo and learn more about the extensive possibilities of GAT Suite for Education.