CybrSec Solutions for Education

An alarming 72% of cyber attacks begin with a phishing email.  Educators are often targeted with these types of attacks through cleverly crafted emails appearing to be from senior school administration.  All that is required is for the recipient to click on a provided link and a malware or ransomeware virus is launched allowing hackers access to all information stored on the school’s network.  For a district this means personal information on students and employees such as social security numbers, birthdates, health records, grades, and payroll information.  Hackers may exploit this data by selling it, or by maliciously encrypting the all data on the network, seriously crippling or shutting down the school’s ability to function until a random is paid.  

GoldKey Secure Email uses b² Cryptography to protect your school from phishing attacks with its unique authenticated email system, so you know that the email in your inbox is actually from the proposed sender.  Emails from unverified senders are filtered and quarantined in the Junk folder.  This not only protects systems from viruses and cyber attacks, but it helps remove distractions and makes sure important emails are easy to find.

All student personally identifiable information (PII), as well as any other data that may be used “to identify the student with reasonable certainty” is protected under FERPA.  Emails containing this type of data, including student grades, need to be secured to avoid FERPA violations.  To effectively secure these communications email encryption is required.

Encryption is needed as emails travel across open public networks as well as when stored in the cloud.  While many vendors claim to offer email encryption, the email stored in the cloud is still accessible to the provider where it is mined for data to help them “improve their services” (e.g., to solicit its users with focused ads to the vendors financial gain).  These email systems, often provided for free, result in a serious loss of privacy to the user, and have become the subject of much controversy.

 GoldKey Email provides robust automatic encryption for email communications.   Emails are encrypted in transit and remain encrypted when stored in the cloud, protecting student information for compliance with FERPA.

Most email accounts are only protected by a user name and password and are vulnerable to brute force attacks.  This vulnerability can lead to serious concerns when it comes to protecting student data for compliance with FERPA law.

GoldKey Email utilizes strong two factor authentication with GoldKey tokens to protect accounts from unauthorized access — the user must have the token and know the correct PIN.  To further protect a GoldKey Email account from unauthorized access, the token will become locked after the wrong PIN is entered 9 times.

GoldKey Vaults protect data with military-grade encryption in transit and at rest in the cloud.  Even if a hacker was to intercept the data it would be completely useless.

GoldKey Tokens with b² Cryptography use multifactor authentication for secure access to data stored in GoldKey Vaults.  Without the token or the correct PIN the data is unaccessible.  This provides an extra layer of protection for encrypted data in the cloud.

Being able to let educators collaborate while still maintaining security for student PII is critical for schools to function efficiently.   

GoldKey Vaults make it easy to organize and control access to data for secure file sharing in the cloud.  Management is simple and can be overseen by school administration without requiring IT involvement.  

Groups can be assigned for access to specific vaults and members may be added or removed as needed.  Access privileges can be set to read-only, read/write or management access for granular control of data.

As more and more data is moving to the Cloud, new challenges are arising in how to effectively manage and monitor access to this data.  In many cases oversight for data stored in the cloud must be “trusted” into the hands of the provider with little or no access and monitoring controls for the end user.

GoldKey Vaults utilize GoldKey Tokens with b² Cryptography to provide secure access and management for data stored in the cloud.  Vault Management actions are logged for oversight and security monitoring purposes, helping schools safeguard student records and achieve compliance with FERPA.

Instant communications provide educators with the important and convenient communication tools required to perform their missions.  However these communications are typically not secure, putting sensitive student data and PII at risk.  

GoldKey Phone Service provides educators with extreme security for text messaging, voice calls, and video calls over Wi-Fi and cellular data networks.  Secured by award-winning b² Cryptography, GoldKey Phone uses hardware-based encryption channels with authenticated users to guarantee privacy, even over public networks.