For many schools, this summer break looks a little different from previous years. This time, students and teachers will be gearing up to go back to school for the first time in over a year.
As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout enables in-person learning to resume full-force, IT teams need to prepare their schools’ infrastructure for increased traffic. And while the IT infrastructure should be up-to-date, many teams overlook physical security, which is just as critical to student and teacher safety. Here are a few reasons IT teams are securing school buildings with smart security cameras this summer.
Cybersecurity and Physical Security Are Often Linked
While we tend to think of cybersecurity incidents as invisible, bodiless hacks, they often start with a physical incident. For example, some social engineering tactics include visiting a location to extract information that would help them break into the network. Hackers also target network-connected devices through theft or physical infiltration to gain access to the main network.
Physical cameras can catch incidents like these. Better yet, smart physical cameras can catch incidents like these, identify them, save them and alert the right people when they happen.
Smart Security Cameras Integrate With the Network
Physical security should integrate tightly and securely with cybersecurity – smart cameras do just that by integrating footage onto the main network, which can be accessed from anywhere in real time.
Smart cameras allow you to set certain security parameters and get alerts when something violates those parameters. For example, with certain smart cameras (Cisco Meraki is a school favorite), you can identify secure areas – like a server room – and generate an alert to your security officer when the camera detects movement in that area after hours. And security officers can view the footage in real-time from anywhere – if an incident occurs at night, you can configure alerts to come to your phone and check out the camera footage from home.
With smart cameras, footage automatically integrates with the network. Based on your configurations, they can save certain events or a timeframe of recent footage to a secure cloud location to optimize space. They can even call out movement and important events, significantly cutting the time it takes to scrub footage.
Smart Cameras Offer Better Security for Students and Teachers
Safety is always paramount on a school’s priority list, and it will be top of mind as many students and teachers return to classrooms for the first time in over a year. Smart cameras help improve general school safety by informing the right personnel of security events faster, with more real-time information about the incident.
Get a Head Start This Summer
Summer break is a great time for IT teams to establish a plan of action and implement necessary changes in preparation for the school year.
BridgeTek is an IT solutions provider that specializes in school security. We can help you develop a security plan for your school, including identifying the right cameras for your school, implementing them and configuring them to meet your needs. We can also help you navigate funding, including e-rate and CARES Act funds. Learn more about our K-12 IT services.
Looking for more guidance on what your schools need to succeed? We’ve developed a template survey for you to send out to students, parents and teachers to determine how you can improve their user experience. Download the template now.