Hi! Bleeping Computer Community,

I'm a perspective English teacher and I was just wondering about privacy precautions concerning students. Is there any possible way to ensure privacy of grades, demographic information and personal work from internet intruders and "interested" students? If so, which programs would you suggest for protection of said information? How reliable are mentioned products?

Any and all suggestions are welcome. Thank you for your time!

There are several thing you can do. No one program will give you total security. First is to develop a layered security system on your computer. Start with

Antivirus
Firewall
Antispyware. Both automatic and manual scanning software
Router NAT firewall. Even if you have only one computer.
Where possible do not leave data on the computer. Save to removeable storage.
Encrypt your data when possible.
Never let someone use your computer. Of course this aplies where practical.

Here is a list of recommended software.

Antivirus (Run only one.)
AVG Free Edition Antivirus (I personally use)
Avast Home Edition Antivirus Freeware
AntiVir Personal Edition Classic Freeware
BitDefender 8 Free Edition

Antispyware
Microsoft Defender (2000,and XP only)
Spybot Tutorial
AdAware SE Personal Edition Tutorial
SpyBlaster Tutorial
SpywareGuard Tutorial

Trojan Removal Tool
Ewido Anti-Malware After a 14 day trial it will not scan automaticily(2000, and XP only)(Features)
A Squared Free

Online scans
Trendmicro's Housecall Internet Explorer Only
Trendmicro"s Housecall FoxFire Only
Panda's ActiveScan Internet Explorer Only
F-secure's Virus Scan Internet Explorer Only
SyGate's Trojan scan
eTrust Antivirus Web Scanner Internet Explorer Only

Removal Tools
Kaspersky Removal Tools
AVG Manual Virus Removal tool
MacAfee Stinger Virus Removal Tool
Symantec's Viurs Removal Tools
BitDefender Removal Tools Free

Firewalls (Run only one.)
Zone Alarm Free for Personal Use
SyGate Presonal Firewall 5.6 (I personally use)
OutPost Firewall Free
Kerio Free Personal Firewall


Best of all... they are free.

I agree completely with Ackalan!

But you also need to take into consideration simply explaining to the students dangers of internet tampering. Let them know that being in your office unattended or trying to break into computer files from a remote computer is illegal and punnishable by law. Before telling your class, maybe consult current computer hacking state, federal and district policies and consquences.

As a therapist for young adults, I'm a firm believer in simply trusting children.
I hope my advice helps.

This particular topic is really tricky.

I think a combination of both Ackalan and Ms. Freer's suggestions are in line. Even if you do trust your students, you can never be too certain... and if worse comes to worse, you don't want to be blamed for the revelation of student information.

Before purchasing any security software, I would consult your school or districts system administrator. Maybe they have a site liscense for various security systems or know how to access one for free- because as with all software, security software can get really expensive.

After reading Ms. Freer and Atablan32's I may have misinteruptered the original post. I believed this computer would be for the teacher's use, not for the stundets.
I agree with Atablan32 about what software you use on school computers. They will have strict policies reguarding the use of non-approved software. The teachers I know work on the computer a home. Few have time to work on the computer during school hours. If your referring to a school computer you will be limited to what that school\district allows on thier network.
While I respect Ms. freer's opinion, as I do most on this forum, I would have to disagree with trusting children. I am the parent of three and render and opinion based on that and not a professional. Childern are curious and forever testing the boundries set for them. While thier action may not be malious in nature, if they make a mistake you may not be unable to undo the harm.
For example, a child may find it humorus to reveal an email between parent/teacher in a attempt at joking with a classmate. This in itself may be harmless, but if the email had medical information you may now have a privacy issue. As the owner of the source of the email you may be found liable for not securing the data.
Trusting kids not to go to a site may be an exceptible risk, but placing work data and files in a position where someone, child or not, has access to them is never a good idea.
I would invest in a USB pen/thumb drive to transport between work and home. It is minimun in size and can hold upward of 2 to 4 gb of data. They also make a secure verison that needs software to be accessed. If it is lost it will be worthless to whom ever finds it.

IMHO

It might help to tell us WHERE this information is to be stored, since there seems to be some confusion here. The steps you need to take are different for a school-network, PC at the school/your office, or your PC at home. Where is the information located and who might have access to it?
Regards,
John