Security
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⏱ 2 min read
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Cybersecurity for small schools: a 10-step practical checklist
Schools hold a goldmine for identity theft — Aadhaar, parent phone, bank details, photos of minors. DPDP Act 2023 makes this a legal duty, not just good hygiene. Ten steps that cost nothing and stop 90% of common attacks.
T
Technokrits
Technokrits team
📖
A small school's database has Aadhaar numbers, parent phones, bank accounts, photographs of minors, and fee histories. That is a high-value identity-theft target. DPDP Act 2023 now puts a legal duty on schools to protect this data — not just a reputational one.
Ten steps. Most cost nothing. Most stop 90% of common attacks.
1. Unique strong password per account. No shared "admin/admin123" login among five staff. Spatie roles give each staff member their own account in seconds.
2. 2FA on every super-admin and accounts user account. SMS or authenticator app — Google Authenticator is free.
3. Auto-lockout after 5 failed login attempts. A 15-minute lock kills brute-force scripts without inconveniencing real users who get one wrong password attempt.
4. HTTPS everywhere. Let's Encrypt is free. A school admin login over plain HTTP leaks passwords on any public Wi-Fi.
5. Encrypted database backups. Spatie backup encrypts the ZIP — set the BACKUP_ARCHIVE_PASSWORD in .env once.
6. Off-site backup mirror. A weekly upload to S3 / Google Drive saves you when ransomware hits the local server.
7. Audit log on every sensitive action. Marks edited, fees waived, TC issued — every row has who, when, what.
8. Forced password rotation for accounts staff every 90 days. (Lower priority — modern advice is "long passwords don't need rotation" — but most school accountants share their phones, so rotation still helps.)
9. Block unknown devices from sensitive routes. The super-admin subdomain has an IP allowlist option — turn it on once an attack starts.
10. Yearly tabletop exercise. "What if our database leaks tomorrow? Who emails parents? Who informs the DPDP regulator?" 60 minutes once a year saves panic later.
Vidyakrit ships with 2FA per-school toggle, login throttling, encrypted backups, audit log, security headers, and IP allowlist on the super-admin subdomain.
Ten steps. Most cost nothing. Most stop 90% of common attacks.
1. Unique strong password per account. No shared "admin/admin123" login among five staff. Spatie roles give each staff member their own account in seconds.
2. 2FA on every super-admin and accounts user account. SMS or authenticator app — Google Authenticator is free.
3. Auto-lockout after 5 failed login attempts. A 15-minute lock kills brute-force scripts without inconveniencing real users who get one wrong password attempt.
4. HTTPS everywhere. Let's Encrypt is free. A school admin login over plain HTTP leaks passwords on any public Wi-Fi.
5. Encrypted database backups. Spatie backup encrypts the ZIP — set the BACKUP_ARCHIVE_PASSWORD in .env once.
6. Off-site backup mirror. A weekly upload to S3 / Google Drive saves you when ransomware hits the local server.
7. Audit log on every sensitive action. Marks edited, fees waived, TC issued — every row has who, when, what.
8. Forced password rotation for accounts staff every 90 days. (Lower priority — modern advice is "long passwords don't need rotation" — but most school accountants share their phones, so rotation still helps.)
9. Block unknown devices from sensitive routes. The super-admin subdomain has an IP allowlist option — turn it on once an attack starts.
10. Yearly tabletop exercise. "What if our database leaks tomorrow? Who emails parents? Who informs the DPDP regulator?" 60 minutes once a year saves panic later.
Vidyakrit ships with 2FA per-school toggle, login throttling, encrypted backups, audit log, security headers, and IP allowlist on the super-admin subdomain.
T
Technokrits
Technokrits team — building software for Indian schools.
Try it in your school today