Wider Issues
Cyber security FireEye 2016 Trend Report (February 2016) The report found that eight per cent of all cyber attacks occurred within the Education sector. Furthermore only 47 per cent of all cyber attacks are discovered internally. This emphasises the need to ensure an incident response plan is in place and that all relevant members of staff receive appropriate training to recognise hoax emails and report breaches.
Government Changes (July 2016) There now seems to be some stability and direction in Government. The new Secretary of State for Education, Justine Greening and the new Skills and Apprentices Minister, Robert Halfon are keen to engage with Association of Colleges (AoC). It was stated by the AoC that both the Secretary of State for Education and the Skills and Apprentices Minister view colleges as being at the centre of delivering Government’s intentions in terms of technical education, apprenticeships, English and Maths, social inclusion and opportunity.
Machinery of Government changes An explanatory note has been released to explain the machinery of Government changes around the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS). The note confirms that DfE will take over all elements of education, children’s services and skills. It will inherit responsibilities including: • Delivery of 3 million new apprenticeship starts in England by 2020. • Delivery of the Apprenticeship Levy. • Implementation of new technical routes to skilled employment. • Area reviews • Improvements to adult further education in England. • Introducing a new regulatory framework for higher education.
Fraud alert (May - June 2016)
The EFA has sent out an alert warning schools and colleges of a scam involving Portakabin Ltd. Portakabin Ltd has advised that certain customers may be receiving a fraudulent letter regarding a change to their bank account details. If such a letter has been received, all instructions should be ignored. A fraudulent fax requesting CHAPS payments has also been sent to a college after scammers were able to find the college’s bank details, as they are in the public domain. Fraudsters have also been found scamming email address of principals, sending emails to staff members and requesting payments to be made. FE Week reported that the scam was foiled when the director of finance services queried the email with the principal.
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