I think Sponge Bob’s private information is safe.

Every district is different, but nearly every district would benefit from reliable and knowledgeable volunteers. However, I think that most districts would be hesitant to rely on volunteers for protecting their sensitive data. But there may be other areas where they would be willing to accept help.

There are other issues to consider as well. Union contracts may play a role as well if the volunteers are doing things that should be handled by their employees.

I would suggest that you contact the administration at your district, express a desire to volunteer in areas where you have expertise, and see what happens. You can ask at the school site or at the district office and you may get different answers.

Good luck and thank you for your willingness to help out!

Do you know if the district could use *experienced* parent volunteers to solve some of the data and IT problems? My husband and I have been in the field since the early 80′s, and we’d love to help if we could.

There are many low-cost and free alternatives to safeguard this data as well: TrueCrypt, which is free and can encrypt the entire hard disk. GPG is free and can encrypt sensitive files. PGP is about $100 per computer and can encrypt entire disks or files.

However, with strained budgets and few IT people, most districts don’t have the resources to get their heads above water and undertake such simple steps to protect data.

Stuff happens. You are judged not on the fact that stuff happens but how you act when it has happened. These new hires are part of the future of Oakland schools and should be accorded proper protection.

I hope the district is arranging for credit monitoring services to flag any misuse of their data. At least a years worth but better two years. If misuse happens, the district should be proactive in supporting the new hires when it comes to shutting down the problems and cleaning up their credit reports. You don’t want their resume to read “came to Oakland, got my data stolen, left Oakland.

Oh, and why was this data sitting round on computers anyway? It could be taken off the computers each night and removed on a disk to a safe or another facility. Might take all of ten minutes each evening for a few administrators.