CAMPUS SECURITY

School and campus security: the challenges and solutions in 2021

“Far from being a haven for learning and community, school can be a place of bullying, sexual harassment, corporal punishment, verbal abuse and other forms of violence.” — UNICEF

Worldwide, school and campus security systems are under increasing pressure to identify and prevent wide-ranging criminality that includes shootings, stabbings, sexual predation, robbery, kidnapping, rape, bullying, arson and cybercrime, while at the same time trying to manage the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to UNICEF:

• Half of the world’s students aged 13-15 (about 150 million) report experiencing peer-to-peer violence in and around school.

• Slightly more than one in three students between the ages of 13 and 15 experience bullying, and about the same proportion are involved in physical fights.

• Around 720 million school-aged children live in countries where they are not fully protected by law from corporal punishment at school.

• Between 2005 and 2020, the United Nations (UN) verified more than 13,900 incidents of attacks, including direct attacks or attacks where there has not been adequate distinction between civilian and military objectives, on educational and medical facilities and protected persons, including pupils and hospitalised children, and health and school personnel. South African educational facilities, from primary schools to colleges and universities, are facing the same challenges, exacerbated in many instances by limited budgets and legacy systems.

According to The Conversation, one in five children are victims of sexual abuse in South Africa, and while statistics are difficult to come by and probably “seriously under-reported”, it estimates that 22.2 percent of the country’s school children have been victims of violence.

In 2019, the ‘deeply concerned’ The South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) launched the ‘I Am A School Fan’ campaign against school violence, which was given a major boost on 30 August this year, following its partnering with Old Mutual, Brand South Africa and UNICEF.

Mugwena Maluleka, General Secretary of SADTU, says the focal point is to address the prevalence of violence – which exists on many levels – within schools.

The ‘I Am a School Fan’ campaign highlights various forms of violence, including violence between teachers, teachers committing violence against learners, learner-on-learner violence, and learner violence towards teachers in the immediate school environment; and violence committed in schools by community members in the broader environment. Added to this is that South Africa is one of the very few countries where communities destroy schools when protesting external issues such as service delivery,” SADTU says.

“All of these issues are classified as violence in schools. In 2019, we sat for our ninth congress, where members agreed that they want us to fight back against violence and mobilise all sectors of society with a positive message. It needed a name that would also contribute to that positive message, hence the birth of ‘I Am a School Fan’,” says Maluleka. “We want to work on what we understand South Africa’s psyche to be. South Africans are sports fanatics and sport has often been a great unifier. We want to harness this and use it as a message that supports education with the same passion that one would support their favourite team”.

He adds: “Covid has made us more mobilised as communities. The launch is well timed as this is the time when communities are banding together, following the upheaval of lockdown. We need each other more than ever. We need to instil mechanisms where there is recourse. For example, if a teacher administers corporal punishment, it needs to be reported and dealt with. An awareness must also be created of steps to take when these issues arrive. It’s all very well to hear the message, but then what? Initially, the main purpose of the campaign is to raise awareness of what each stakeholder should and shouldn’t do. We are communicating the message that, ‘as a stakeholder, you should not do this’ etcetera. And ‘as a stakeholder, you MUST do this’ etcetera. We are embarking on a social media campaign to reach education workers, which will offer support and recourse for everyone, not just SADTU members.”

…many educational institutions adopted a position of continuing studies despite a lack of technical support, claiming that computers have only recently become part of the educational process, and that staff are perfectly capable of teaching pupils without them.

Ettiene van der Walt

Bullying in all its forms

School violence and bullying – including cyberbullying – is so widespread that UNESCO Member States have declared the first Thursday of November as the ‘International Day against Violence and Bullying at School Including Cyberbullying’.

“This year we will mark the International Day on Thursday 4 November 2021 under the theme ‘Tackling cyberbullying and other forms of online violence involving children and young people’, UNESCO says. “As countries are responding to Covid-19 at varying stages, the lives and education of children and young people across the world have increasingly moved online. For example, compared to the prior year, childrens’ screen time had doubled in the USA by May 2020, and while online access presents opportunities for connection and learning, it is also increasingly putting children and young people at the risk of online violence.”

Though global data is limited, it points out, ‘evidence shows that cyberbullying has been on the rise in various regions during the pandemic. Although online violence is not limited to school premises, the education system has an important role to play in addressing online safety, digital citizenship, and technology use. Formal education can and should play a key role in providing children and young people with the knowledge and skills to identify online violence and protect themselves from its different forms, whether perpetrated by peers or adults.’

Cybersecurity tips for schools and campuses Bethwel Opil, Enterprise Sales Manager, Kaspersky in Africa, says that the first half of 2020 saw cyberattacks against educational resources grow by at least 350 percent when compared to the corresponding period of 2019. “And while distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks were the most significant, phishing pages and emails exploiting popular online learning platforms also gained significant momentum.”

He adds: “Kaspersky research found that the most targeted entities in 2019 were educational organisations, accounting for approximately 61 percent of all attacks. And even though some colleges had to cancel classes, many educational institutions adopted a position of continuing studies despite a lack of technical support, claiming that computers have only recently become part of the educational process, and that staff are perfectly capable of teaching pupils without them.”

Fast forward to today, with the Covid-19 pandemic, he continues, and the situation has become even more dire. “During the hard lockdown months (and even immediately following them), many schools, universities, and other institutions of learning embraced digital tools to keep classes going. However, this has also made them fair game for increasingly sophisticated attackers looking to exploit systems that may not be as secure as the more traditional organisations.”

Now, more than ever, he urges, schools and campuses need to implement and adhere to best practices in order to safeguard their young charges. Opil’s best practices include:

• Learning about the tools they are using “Whether it is a video conferencing tool or messaging app, educators and students must understand how best to use them, especially in a classroom environment.”

• Understanding the rules “This works at any business or institution. Users must know what services are prohibited, as they might cause a security compromise.”

• Being password sensitive “Setting a unique password for each service might sound like a chore, but it is essential, especially if an often-used password is compromised. Fortunately, there are many high-quality password managers available to help keep track, such as Kaspersky Password Manager.”

• Spotting potential phishing attacks “Learners and educators alike would do well to know how to identify a phishing attack. Phishing sites and emails often contain errors, misaligned layouts, and broken links.

• Securing all devices “Every connected device must have reliable cybersecurity protection installed. Anti-ransomware and anti-phishing solutions can help protect systems against even the most sophisticated attacks.”

Morne Grobler

Universities today, Smart Cities tomorrow

“Not only are public-private partnerships necessary for a Smart City, but universities may also turn into a key factor for the development of innovative projects and improvement in the quality of life,” says Ettiene van der Watt, Regional Director — Middle East & Africa at Axis. “Universities can bring great benefits to the entire process, as proving grounds for Smart Cities innovation and as places where students may offer their own ideas, and work on them to contribute to making cities smarter.”

This synergy between city institutions, corporate players and academic entities has the potential to provide opportunities within a smart city system, he avers. “Around the world there are a lot of best practices to take as an example of successful public-private partnerships. For instance, the University of Adelaide’s Australian Smart Cities Consortium develops projects in cooperation with experts from universities, local governments, and companies in order to improve the quality of life for its citizens. The Amsterdam Smart City, a project led by citizens, companies and institutions collaborating to provide solutions to improve and solve everyday issues, focusing on main topics such as energy management, digital transformation, and mobility, is another excellent example, as is the Bologna Smart City project of the municipality, the university and the Aster consortium working together to create a context capable of facing future challenges in crucial sectors for the community, like safe neighbourhoods, sustainable mobility, cultural heritage, health, and education.”

Protecting students and staff in an open city campus

King’s College London (KCL), based in the centre of London, needed to upgrade its security system to keep all areas secure and mitigate the threat of terrorism, a concern for the entity, which has five campuses and various student residences in the city.

“KCL was using a variety of access control products to manage security across multiple campuses,” says Morne Grobler, Gallagher Group Operations Officer in Africa. “Its key requirement was a standardised access control system that could operate college-wide and be scaled to include new builds.”

To this end, Gallagher added an access control component to the College’s existing system, which included staff and student databases, and sources for cardholder information. The system provides daily updates on joiners, movers, and leavers, allows for the creation of ID cards for new students, provides access to designated areas for students and staff and allows for the control of lighting.

“When there are alerts, the university’s security services can now consult a single system and react quickly,” says Mr Grobler. Fewer system failures, better decision-making between estates and libraries, and easier card management — all key requirements for campuses the world over.

DB Databac Connect LOOP card.

Visitor management

“Universities face a unique set of challenges when it comes to visitor management,” says Charles Balcomb, CEO of Databac. “Designed to be easily accessible and welcoming, campuses are open to the public, with multiple points of entry. They often contain a number of different buildings. What’s more, they have to deal with thousands of visitors a year. Besides individual guests, many visitors arrive in large groups for events such as open days, business conferences and tours in general. Adding to the complexity, some universities make their facilities available for corporate events and most have short-term contractors on their payroll.”

It’s not surprising that visitor control at many universities has not progressed beyond visitor books at reception, he adds. “While access control systems are used for non-public areas, these are rarely flexible enough to handle the requirements for short or short-term visits. The lack of legacy systems has an upside, however. Universities are able to embrace new solutions from scratch, as advances in mobile technology mean that their requirements may now be neatly addressed.”

First and foremost, among these criteria, is security. “If visitors are to be allowed into non-public areas, credentials must work with existing access control readers or turnstiles.”

Also critical is the speed of registration, he continues. “When dealing with large numbers of visitors, check-in must be seamless, to avoid queues and prevent people from blocking entry points. The discrepancy in visitor numbers – anywhere from one to hundreds – means any system must be scalable.”

Embracing the cloud

Cloud-based systems can be combined with standard office systems and mobile technology to create intuitive solutions that are secure, flexible, and easy to use, says Balcomb. Citing the recent adoption of such systems at the Universities of Derby and Staffordshire in the UK, he says that they allow staff to make appointments from anywhere, without any integration issues. “Invites may be sent, and credentials issued, using familiar programs like Microsoft Office 365,” he explains, adding: “Multiple registrations for events are easily handled by importing text or CSV files, complete with personal details, parking requirements, car number plates and other relevant data.”

The systems also allow for all preliminary security and health and safety checks to be carried out before arrival to speed up the onboarding process.

Mobile and physical credentials

Included in the credentials of cloud-based visitor systems are digital visitor passes, which may be stored on mobile phones, for the whole visit or until a visitor pass is collected on site, either as a printed pass, self-expiring visitor label or access card, says Balcomb.

If rewritable cards are used, visitor cards are able to be printed, erased, and reprinted up to 500 times, personalisable with visitor and other information, he notes, and – depending on the system used – the cards may contain the corresponding reading technology to allow controlled access to appropriate areas.

“On arrival, hosts are automatically notified, further unburdening reception staff. Guests can show a QR code or secure digital pass on their phone at reception or self-register on a kiosk. Combining cloud-based visitor systems with kiosks also enriches the visitor journey. Whether free-standing or desk-mounted, these easy-to-use devices speed up check-in and free up staff. Contact-free operation ensures hygienic usage for greater physical protection. And being completely customisable, they may be configured to display practical information like maps or marketing content, turning them into a useful communications tool.”

Data analytics

The inclusion of a data analytics component is ideal for multi-tenanted campuses, says Balcomb. Not only does it store visitor details safely in the cloud, but it also provides a dashboard overview of visitor numbers, peak visitor flows, and in emergencies, it provides an instant view of who is in the building, with no dependence on on-site servers or physical visitor logs.

Conclusion

“Every child has the right to go to school, free from fear,” says UNICEF. “When schools provide quality, inclusive and safe education, children are able to learn, build friendships and gain the critical skills they need to navigate social situations. In the best circumstances, school puts children on the path to a promising future.”

Contributors:

UNICEF https://www.unicef.org

The Conversation https://theconversation.com/africa

SADTU http://www.sadtu.org.za/

UNESCO https://en.unesco.org

Kaspersky www.kaspersky.co.za

Axis https://www.axis.com

Databac www.databac.com

Gallagher https://security.gallagher.com/