Not all data exchange solutions are equally secure. How do you know if your data exchange puts your district at risk of exposing PII?
School districts have been using data exchange for years to give edtech vendors and other third parties the information they need. Unfortunately, most data exchange puts districts at risk of exposing PII (personal identifiable information). How does this risk occur? In most cases, legacy applications and services were initially granted access before today’s more stringent data security requirements came into play.
What To Look for in a Data Exchange Solution
There are many options for districts in need of data exchange. It’s important to ensure that the solution you choose offers the following:
Zero-Trust
A Zero-trust data exchange is the only way to ensure that data is secure at every point. Zero-trust is exactly what it says – an assumption that all network traffic is potentially malicious and requires verification before it can be trusted. Zero-trust in K-12 schools means better overall cybersecurity, better student data protection, and a higher likelihood of meeting compliance measures. It is the only way to truly reduce the risk of exposing PII.
Seamless Exchange
Your data exchange solution should allow your district to seamlessly exchange any data to any platform. Most districts need to be able to share more than just roster data. In some cases, you need to be able to share additional information with vendors.
Total Control Over Your Data Exchange
It’s best to have a zero-trust data exchange in which any data used in a data exchange between systems requires acceptance from both sides of the exchange. One side pushes data, and the other side needs to accept it, or one side requests data, and the other allows it to flow. By having controls on both ends of the exchange, it reduces the risk of exposing PII.
Behind-the-Scenes Functionality
Your data exchange should support open standard APIs such as OneRoster, LTI, and others. Every exchange should be authenticated using SSO. And all of it should integrate seamlessly and efficiently with your LMS and SIS.
Minimize Risk with the Right Data Exchange Platform
It is a huge responsibility on the shoulders of school districts to protect PII – not just for students but for staff as well. School Passport is a zero-trust data exchange platform by GG4L. It is designed to help protect Personally Identifiable Information (PII) through data encryption, role-based access control, and audit logs to help ensure the secure handling of sensitive information.
School Passport Reduces Risk of Exposing PII
Utilizing a zero-trust data exchange like School Passport, which has the capacity to offer robust data exchange using enterprise-grade security standards, pre-built connectors for different data exchange challenges that are readily available for your school district, and custom workflow automations, can help your district be more efficient and more secure.
For more information on how School Passport from GG4L can help your district build and maintain a zero-trust data exchange, visit www.gg4l.com/learnmore.
