The Benefits of Installing a Good Parental Control Software

They say parenting adolescents is mostly about retaining a tenuous balance between being aware of what your kid is up to and giving him or her a fair amount of privacy and independence. Since the Internet age is very much here, conducting a discreet form of surveillance on your kid's activities should be much easier.

However, as the Internet evolved to become increasingly complex and all-encompassing, so did its user's abilities to conceal a great deal of their activities online. Kids and teenagers have become particularly adept at getting around websites with restricted content while hiding the said activity from their parents in the process.

So, with all the assorted toxic content floating around on the Internet just waiting for kids to seek them out or stumble upon them, how can a parent protect his or her children when they won't always be around (or when kids choose to hide their online activities)? 

The answer possibly lies in the installation of a good parental control software.  One type of parental control software is known as keylogger. One of the benefits of such software is that it provides concerned parents is that it can be installed remotely and that it is generally undetectable once in place. The kid would know that such a software is in place, of course, but they would not know when it is functioning. (This then serves as an additional deterrent against visiting websites with inappropriate content or engaging in cyber bullying.)

Some of the other crucial benefits that a good keylogger can provide also include the following:

1. Keystroke logging. Some of the best keylogger software out there can even track your child's keystrokes and show you the sort of keywords or text that commonly pop up when your kid uses the Internet. If some of their keyword searches also turn out to be particularly suspicious, the program can track that too and give you a heads-up.
2. Screenshots. A lot of busy parents often don't have the time to check in with the program as much as they would like. Fortunately, they can set their parental control program of choice to take and keep screenshots of their child's online activity so that they can peruse them when they are ready.
3. Some keyloggers also automatically generate reports so that parents can get timely updates on their child's online activities even when they are away from home for long periods of time.
4. Recording of chat transcripts or emails. Perhaps the scariest thing about cyber bullying is that it often goes undetected until it's too late. This is because a great deal of the bullying occurs behind computer screens, where insults are lobbied behind the safety that distance and anonymous usernames provide. Parental control programs can help nip things in the bud since it picks up on suspicious chat transcripts or email exchanges and keeps a record of them. That way, it can be easier for a parent to notice any disturbing patterns of behavior being made towards their kids. Another advantage is that the records can also stand as proof in case the parent might need to take further action against the bully.
   
   See related posts:  Stop!T! - Stop Cyber Bullying in its Tracks at Your School

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Bruce holds a degree in Computer Science from Temple University, a Graduate Certificate in Biblical History from Liberty University and is working towards a Masters Degree in American History at American Public University.  He has worked in educational and technology for over 18 years, specializes in building infrastructures for schools that work to support the mission of technology in education in the classroom.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  

Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel -- with a new book, Learn the Basics: Digital Forensics, due soon. 

Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Be sure to check out Bruce's Allentown Education Examiner Page, his Twitter and his Facebook!

7 Questions Every Teacher and Educator Should Ask

Education and Technology have always had a promising, if not tenuous relationship.  Schools, administrators and teachers alike have struggled with how the two can come together in the most prodigious and productive ways possible.  This has been going on for over thirty years... and while there have been some successes, and a large number of promising ideas that have come from it -- the large majority of schools and teachers struggle with the right formula that will consistently breed success.  

And in the end... the answer is that no such formula exists.  Every teacher, every student and every school are different... and because of that, it is an ever changing and evolving area.  But recently the ASCD posted a BLOG on 7 questions  that every educator should ask themselves as the prepare for this upcoming school year.  And these questions speak to how the educator approaches instruction whether it be with or without technology.  I am reposting those questions here, and then linking to the article below so you can see how the ASCD has answered these questions.  But I urge all administrators, teachers and educators in general to answer these questions for themselves before reading the article.

1. Learning -- Who owns the learning?
2. Learning Space -- Do our classrooms empower students to practice creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, communication and contribution?
3 . Partnerships - Does our school have a plan for communicating with families?
4. Assessment - Does our school have a plan for supporting formative assessment?
5. Reflection - How will each staff member create white space for reflection and growth?
6. College and Career Readiness - Would you hire your own students?
7. Image - What makes your school unique?

In the end, the only way to affect change is to create the change... disrupt the norm.  Progress in all areas comes from finding new ways to think and then new ways to do.  If we want to improve continuously, we must question what we do, how we do it and -- why we do it continuously.  Keep reading... and keep asking questions!

Here is the original ASCD article.


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Bruce holds a degree in Computer Science from Temple University, a Graduate Certificate in Biblical History from Liberty University and is working towards a Masters Degree in American History at American Public University.  He has worked in educational and technology for over 18 years, specializes in building infrastructures for schools that work to support the mission of technology in education in the classroom.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  

Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel -- with a new book, Learn the Basics: Digital Forensics, due soon. 

Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Be sure to check out Bruce's Allentown Education Examiner Page, his Twitter and his Facebook!

                            

Tech: Why Physical Security is Important to your Data!

Physical Security... locking your doors is important, but it is so much more than that!  While most IT security focuses on technology, network connectivity, firewalls, antivirus, and patching, you cannot overlook the importance of physical security. From employees, teachers and staff members who leave the building with a laptop or tablet to your physical work location, everyone should be aware of their surroundings and take basic precautions to safeguard the equipment and data in their care. Here are some of these basic physical security best practices.

Situational Awareness 
Users should always be aware of where they are and who is around them.  Maintaining situational awareness of their surroundings at all times and paying attention to potential threats is key to keeping data safe. They should not talk loudly on the phone or with colleagues about sensitive topics when others are within earshot. They should not pull out their phone and pay more attention to it than to walking down the street or standing at a train platform. They should not set up their laptop where someone can easily grab it and run off, and a refractive screen filter may be in order for those who work on sensitive data out in the open.

Maintain Control
There will be times when users cannot maintain direct physical control of IT resources, such as when their laptop goes through the X-ray machine at the airport. But they can make an effort to always maintain visual contact with their equipment and ensure that they are not letting their laptop go through the X-ray machine until they are able to go through the metal detector too. Although many TSA agents will balk at this suggestion, it does not hurt to make a best effort.  Users should also ensure that any portable media that is not directly connected to their computer and within sight.  It should always be either in their pocket, or put away out of sight in their bag, which must remain within their control. It only takes a second for someone to grab a USB key or laptop and walk off with it. Don’t provide anyone with the opportunity to grab something of yours while you are not looking.

Encryption
Accidents will happen and things will get stolen.  By encrypting all data on all portable storage and laptop hard drives, when something does grow wings and flies away, at least the sensitive data stored on the hardware will not be readily accessible to the new ‘owner.’ Make sure you use strong encryption, a strong password.  And never, ever write down your password on anything.  If you keep a list of passwords, choose an encrypted app on a secure device to store this information.

Organized Work AreaA clean office is a sign of a security-minded person. If you have stacks of papers, or worse, if your office is filled with a stack of old laptops -- you want to clean it up, now. If you don’t want the cleaning crew, visitors or co-workers to see what they should not, then don’t leave sensitive information on the desk. If you’re away from your computer, lock the screen, and if you have data on a whiteboard erase it before you leave or cover it so that it’s not visible to anyone outside your office and prying eyes.  Your organization should have a mandatory screen lock built in when a computer is left unused for a certain period of time.

Lock It Up
Sensitive documents, DVDs, portable drives, and USB keys should be locked in your desk at the end of the day. Your laptop bag should be locked in your trunk when you must travel with it, and MUST leave it in the car. Avoid doing so when it’s very hot… you don’t want to cook your laptop. When renting cars, make sure they come with a trunk so you can put things away out of sight. In a hotel, a cable lock helps ensure that your laptop is secure when you are using it and have left the room for dinner or time in the gym. The hotel’s cleaning service may be extremely honest and trustworthy, but they may not.  It is not unusual for them to leave the doors open while they are cleaning rooms.  It only takes a second to jump in, grab the laptop, and jump back out.

Don’t Advertise
While those bags with the company logo look really cool, they also advertise who you work for and what is in the bag.  It is important to have identifying information on your laptop and bag, but a discreet card in your bag and a sticker on the laptop is sufficient for that. The same goes for logo wear. When traveling, try to avoid wearing clothes or using bags with the logo of your company so that you are not calling attention to yourself. Sure, everyone will know what you have in your back pack, but without a logo you could be as much a student as a high-end consultant for a big name company. Most physical security involves common sense, situational awareness, and reducing the risk. Stay alert and don’t part with your laptop or files or memory sticks unless you really have to. Even then you can take precautions. Better safe than sorry!

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Bruce holds a degree in Computer Science from Temple University, a Graduate Certificate in Biblical History from Liberty University and is working a Master Degree in American History at American Public University.  He has worked in educational and technology for over 18 years, specializes in building infrastructures for schools that work to support the mission of technology in education in the classroom.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  

Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel -- with a new book, Learn the Basics: Digital Forensics, due soon. 

Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Be sure to check out Bruce's Allentown Education Examiner Page, his Twitter and his Facebook!

Mobile Device Management: An MDM Primer for Schools, Non-Profits and Small Business

Mobile devices are infiltrative every aspect of our lives, and that includes education.  Many schools, non-profits and small businesses struggle with the hows, the wheres and the whys of mobile devices on their networks and in their classrooms.  And even as the pedagogical debate rages on about the efficacy of iPads or Chromebooks in the classroom, one thing is for certain: these devices are in your classrooms.  And if they are in your classroom, they are on your network -- and therefore must be managed!

Mobile Devices Are All Around You
More organizations than ever are confronting how to fully embrace mobile devices beyond their executive and sales teams. In a way, IT teams are being dragged into this. Many users have fully incorporated smartphones and tablets into their daily lives thanks to devices and operating systems from Apple and Google. They are choosing the personal user experience of Android and iPhone over the largely business-task-driven BlackBerry devices. They have also adopted application stores in their personal lives, blending activities like web browsing, games, and mobile payments with business uses such as corporate email. The drive to combine the personal aspects of these devices with business functions has created a need for control management of these devices.

So why is it taking so long for schools and non-profit organizations to officially assimilate mobile devices into their organizations? There are a number of reasons, but the biggest is that most of these organizations want to drop the issue into the lap of their IT folks and have them create organization policy in addition to the IT tasks. They put the cart before the horse.

The Essentials: Start with a Strong Foundation
Regardless of your business, industry or users, there are certain basic and advances practices that you should be following. Here are the best practice that will be covered in this series:

1. Be Realistic with Your Policy
2. Gain Insight into Who’s Mobile and What They’re Doing
3. Cover the Basics: Passwords, Encryption, and Remote Wipe
4. 1,2,3 to Good Policy
5. Make it Simple to Get Up and Running
6. Let End Users Take Care of Device Management
7. Start Planning for Centralized Control
8. Spread the Word about Your Progress

And some Advanced Practices: Build Upon Your Foundation

1. Get a Grip on Usage Costs
2. Automate Compliance Management
3. Manage Application Restrictions and Your Own Application Storefront
4. Provide a Backup & Recovery Service

1. Be Realistic with Your Policy
Policy is king... right?  Your policy should:

1. Support multiple device platforms
2. Allow personal devices

Frankly, nearly all organizations are doing this now. They just don’t know it. Odds are that you have a policy that says what your computers can and can not do -- right? That you say if your staff can use personal laptops or not? Right? (Let's assume you said yes... because you should!)

You need to be doing it for your mobile devices, too! And it is far more important than you think. You probably have a lot more personal iOS, Android and Windows Mobile devices inside your organization than you think. After all, it’s easy for any mobile device to integrate with mail infrastructure like Exchange using the Activesync functionality you turned on. It is simple for your end users to set up Exchange or Google Apps on their iPhone or Android device. Trust me, they are doing it -- and you need to support it, so you can manage it.

2. Gain Insight into Who’s Mobile and What They’re Doing
Making decisions and quantifying risks about mobile devices is hard without good data on the mobile devices in your environment. For instance, it’s not uncommon for terminated employees to still be using corporate mobile devices—but you can’t stop this unless you know about it.

With a lightweight reporting and inventory tool, you can keep tabs on how mobile devices are being used and by whom.

Make sure the solution:

1. Empowers your helpdesk to troubleshoot devices
2. Is accessible outside of IT. For example, your HR process needs to have access during exit interviews to turn off devices for employees when they leave the organization.
3. Includes strong application inventory and search capabilities

3. Cover the Basics: Passwords, Encryption, and Remote Wipe
Be sure to do the following:

1. Require a strong password of at least four characters
2. Set up devices to automatically lock after 5-15 minutes of inactivity
3. Configure devices to automatically wipe after a certain number of consecutive failed login attempts or if they are reported lost
4. Enable a level of encryption

Some organizations may want to consider more protection. But before you put yourself in that category, ask yourself one question: Do we enforce this level of security on our laptops?

4. 1, 2, 3 to good policy
You may be worried that you’ll need a new solution to implement the first three best practices. That isn’t necessarily the case. If you have a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, then you are covered on that platform. And with Exchange or Lotus Notes, you can enforce your PIN policy and remote wipe your iPhones, iPads, and Windows Mobile devices. (Android added this Exchange-based security control in version 2.2.) And let's not forget that your Apple Mac OS X Server has a certain level of device management built into it.

Following the principles we’ve already outlined is a responsible approach that takes advantage of existing infrastructure for device and risk management. And it’s a smart one considering that you really can’t stop people in your environment from using mobile devices.

The biggest issue with this approach is that reporting is limited and not scalable—you’ll need to develop and run reports manually, and deal with the lack of a centralized view into all devices.

But taking the first step with reporting and inventorying can dramatically improve your current posture on the uber-popular iPhone and Android devices. Then you can plan a more scalable and robust management
and security solution (as described in the next best practices). In the meantime, click here for our free ActiveSync reporting tool.

5. Make it Simple to Get Up and Running
Don’t make IT responsible for reviewing each request for device and system access. Instead, empower users to enroll their own devices by visiting a single URL. Set up a default policy that approves the users’ devices and pushes down their e-mail and your organizations Wi-Fi profiles. This will create efficiency in your technology footprint, take a burden off your IT department and make your end-users a lot happier.

In addition to making the process easy for end users, simplify things for IT and create innate security on your network. For example, your policy could specify that any Android device with OS 2.2 or above is automatically granted access to corporate systems, while any Android device on an earlier OS version is automatically blocked.

6. Let End Users Take Care of Device Management
With employees relying on mobile devices to get their jobs done, you don’t want basic device management issues to get in the way of productivity. You also don’t want users calling the helpdesk with issues they can resolve themselves. Empower end users with a self-service portal that allows them to:

1. Enroll their own devices
2. Lock and wipe their own devices if think they’ve been stolen
3. Reset their own passcodes
4. Locate their lost devices

...all without ever calling your IT department!

7. Think About and Plan for Centralized Control
If you have Blackberries, your BlackBerry Enterprise Server is probably well entrenched, both operationally and economically. But it is not multi-platform, and a multi-platform solution is needed to support the variety of devices in your environment.

Consider these four cutting edge best practices:

1. Adopt an MDM platform that can also manage PCs and Macs as well as mobile devices. The lines between laptops, tablets, and smartphones will continue to blur in both user functionality and IT operations. A versatile MDM solution will cut down on infrastructure costs, improve operational efficiency, and create a single user view into devices and data for operations and security.
2. Be sure your reporting and inventory tool consolidates both your existing devices and your multi-platform MDM solutions. You’ll rely on your data and reports daily, and you’ll want to avoid any manual processes to access your business intelligence on mobile devices.
3. Take a look at cloud-based MDM services. When you account for full Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), a LAN-oriented management solution can be costly. Why use a more expensive—and wired— solution to manage remote mobile devices?
4. Go the agent route with caution. If you can meet your needs with server-side management controls, all the better. Thinking long term, going agent-less is likely to save you a lot of time and effort when moving between different types of devices and platforms. An agent-based solution often requires touching devices or additional support from the IT department to make it all work.

8. Spread the Word about Your Progress
Report on and discuss your mobile device inventory and policy status— including personal devices—in your IT operations reviews. It’s a good way to broaden the discussion beyond those responsible for managing devices in your environment. It’s also an opportunity to raise the visibility of the benefits for your organization, as well as for future resource requirements such as needed involvement from those responsible for security and other areas of IT. Your inventory and reporting tool should make it simple to produce the reports to start conversations in these meetings.

Is It Designed for Any Environment?
The practices we’ve discussed so far should meet most organizations’ needs. In fact, they satisfy the most stringent security and privacy regulations, such as those dictated by the HIPAA, FINRA, and PCI DSS. These regulations only require, in practice, that organizations encrypt their data and are able to destroy data on a lost device. The essential practices cover that and more.

Build Upon Your Foundation with Advanced Practices
With the essentials in place, your organization is primed for an effective mobile IT operation in the near term. Now you need to determine whether or not your organization needs to go a step further with advanced practices.

9. Get a Grip on Usage Costs
You need to be able to track, monitor, and restrict network usage. After all, the costs for international data roaming can reach thousands of dollars per trip. Even domestic usage can quickly add up - it is worth keeping an eye on it for your own sanity, and at some point -- your boss is going to ask about it!

10. Automate Compliance Management
IT needs a way to automatically detect devices out of compliance with policy—and automatically respond. For example, your policy may specify that jailbroken or rooted devices are not allowed in the corporate environment and if one is detected, you will immediately revoke access to corporate systems. Ideally, the detection and revocation should happen automatically. At the same time, you want to automatically notify the user of the action being taken and what’s needed to come into compliance and regain access to corporate resources. Once the device is in compliance, access should be automatically reinstated.

11. Manage Application Restrictions and Your Own Application Self-Service Storefront
Today, most smartphone and tablet vendors do a good job of limiting usage to certified and approved applications. Some would argue they do too good of a job restricting access. Other vendors maintain a very open policy for creating applications, with no formal process for certifying apps. That said, certain organizations or industries may need to restrict the type of application allowed on a corporate-approved device.
If you want to be proactive about it, set up your own enterprise application storefront. This allows you to present a list of approved applications and ease their delivery to mobile devices. Plus, your users will know where to go for these applications and for updates. Some MDM-solution providers can even help you deliver documents such as PDFs to devices.

12. Backup and Recovery for Devices

If any of your users work with critical and unique data beyond email, you may want to consider using a backup and recovery solution. Those using an iPhone or an iPad can rely on iTunes to take care of this. Just make sure your policies are set to force an encrypted backup. For those not using iTunes for backup, you’ll probably need to address specific use cases.

In addition to this MDM primer, I have written Mobile Device Management product overviews for four popular MDM solutions that play nicely in schools, non-profits and small businesses.  Click the links below to read those overviews and help you decide if one of these might be right for your organization!

JAMF Casper Suite Overview
IBM/Fiberlink Maas360 Overview
Miradore's MDM Overview (Free product)
Barracuda's MDM Overview (Free product)

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Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 18 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Be sure to check out Bruce's Allentown Education Examiner Page, his Twitter and his Facebook!

Crowdfunding and Fundraising in schools with Crowdrise

A large part of education and non-profit organizations is fund raising.  There never seems to be enough funding for the various activities and causes that we'd all like to support.  Every independent and public school is always looking for help with raising funds, and sometimes the students are the ones who step up and make the magic happen.

Enter Carissa Peck.  She has created a BLOG in which she discusses and even gives some really great suggestions on how to fundraise for your class.  And not just fundraise, but get the students involved and invested in their own funding.  She focuses on the idea that fundraising, whether it be for your class or some other organization, is something that you can do from anywhere at anytime.  It isn't an activity that needs to be confined to within the classroom, and it need not be something that is done for the edification of the teacher -- that it should be done for the cause.

The entire project came about because of a high school Speech class in San Diego, California.  Carissa talks about using online tools such as YouTube and CrowdRise to create a public presence for your fundraising and even gives some great examples of CrowdRIse done right!

Check out Carissa's BLOG and learn a thing or two about fundraising with your class, not because of it.


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Bruce has worked in educational technology for over 18 years and has implemented several 1:1/BYOD programs.  He also has served as a classroom teacher in Computer Science, History and English classes.  Bruce is the author of five books: Sands of Time, Towering Pines Volume One:Room 509, The Star of Christmas, Philadelphia Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel and The Insider's Story: A Lance Carter Detective Novel.  Follow Bruce's Novel releases by subscribing to his FREE newsletter!

Be sure to check out Bruce's Allentown Education Examiner Page, his Twitter and his Facebook!