Schools and universities have to deal with many security challenges including PC theft and vandalism. Every other day there is some news about schools computers labs being attacked and while most people are of the general belief that vandalism implies physical damage, it is much more than the physical destruction; including fiddling with the operating system/s and manipulating the critical files/folders, and even causing terminals to ill function as well. There are instances where trojans or malwares will be injected into the systems and then on it will be endless demand for money else deletion of files and folders from the systems.

The end result; however, of such computer vandalism ranges depending upon the terminals and the information they have.

Schools therefore have to deal not only with PC theft but also PC vandalism, and it’s quite a challenge to say the least. And with the increased use of portable PCs such as netbooks, notebooks and hand-held computing systems the risk to hardware is only increased. So to make sure that these terminals are protected, it is even more challenging and schools will need to employ protection systems that ensures 24/7 security including but not limiting to any of these security functions:

• Monitor and protect the operating systems against any manipulation by hacking or vandalism

• Especially securing the system drives, folders and then the files from unauthorized access

• Protecting the terminals against malwares, trojans, and scripts that ruin the function of systems

• Allowing access to programs and applications specifically authorized by the administrator

• Deactivating the unwanted function keys as well as system key combinations

• Restricting and/or prohibiting download of the unwanted and destructive files from the Internet

• Giving system administrators the role to define the URLs that the users can have access to so unwanted surfing and surfing undesirable sites is restricted

• Having a program to restart a prgram in the event of system or software error

• Deleting user data every time a user logs off

• Logging off automatically after predetermined period of inactivity

• Closing all windows and programs after the end of every session

• Updating the software automatically

• Scheduling date and time of system restart and shutdown

• Logging out and saving user interaction

What about the physical security? To help enhance the physical security of PCs schools adopt different strategies; while installation of general security systems can prevent to some extent, they are no theft or vandal proof. Besides security systems schools depend on installation of physical security devices including PC locks such as the cable lock that lock the PCs to fixed objects such as desks or walls or having dead bolt locks or alarm systems.