Pupil database claimed to be breach-free
No leaks here, says DCSF
Regcast training : Hyper-V 3.0, VM high availability and disaster recovery
A government minister has claimed a clean record on security breaches for the National Pupil Database.
Baroness Morgan, under-secretary of state at the Department for Children, Schools and Families, said the stringent security procedures around the database have prevented any breaches since it was set up in 2002.
Access is confined to a team of seven staff at the department's Darlington office, and they disclose information only to prescribed people for purposes defined by the relevant regulations.
Morgan provided the information in response to a parliamentary question from Baroness Byford, the Conservatives' shadow minister for food and rural affairs in the House of Lords.
Morgan added that the database is used largely to measure school effectiveness and compare pupils' national curriculum assessments. It makes it possible to assess performance at school against factors such as being eligible for free school meals, where children live and ethnicity.
In response to a question about how long information is held on the database, Morgan said a retention policy, including archiving data with National Archives, is currently being developed.
This article was originally published at Kable.
Kable's GC weekly is a free email newsletter covering the latest news and analysis of public sector technology. To register click here.
COMMENTS
I know how this goes.
BM: We have not found any leaks
Me: How hard and often did you look?
BM: No need, we have mechanisms in place for stakeholders to report any leaks.
Me: So you don't look?
BM: As I said, we have stringent policies in place to gather this sort of intelligence.
Me: But you don't actually, y'know, LOOK; do you?
BM: I have already answered that question on more than one occasion.
Me: Fine then. How about running simulated attacks. Y'know, test your own defences.
BM: That would be in contravention of our stringent, industry leading policies and a complete waste of tax payer's money as we have no leaks.
Me: But how do you know?
BM: None have been reported.
Me: Oh ffs.....
Surely...
"A government minister has claimed a clean record on security breaches for the National Pupil Database. However, we have no evidence on undetected breaches for obvious reasons."
Red rag to a bull
Anyone else think that this will be like one of the hacking contests run by suppliers of supposed bullet-proof systems?
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
Cloud based data management
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
