Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

The primary vulnerability management goal of FERPA is to protect student information, including health, family, and grades, from unauthorized access.

The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, commonly known as FERPA, is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. Students have specific, protected rights regarding the release of such records and FERPA requires that institutions adhere strictly to these guidelines. This initiative protects any personally identifiable information or directory information for a student including the illegal dissemination of data or the illegal access of private student records. Education institutions from day care to universities must protect this information regardless of storage in file cabinets or in electronic data systems.

eEye Digital Security’s Vulnerability Management Solutions are ideal for protecting student data from exploitation from missing patches, known vulnerabilities, mis-configurations, and even viruses, spyware, and zero day threats at the endpoint. The Retina Network Security Scanner and Blink Endpoint Protection Platform provide proactive security for education institutions that must safeguard confidential student information.

eEye Digital Security® offers education institutions the following features when working to safeguard data to meet this regulatory compliance initiative:

• Detecting vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. eEye Digital Security's Retina Vulnerability Scanning Solutions will allow administrators to identify vulnerabilities and security exposures before they can be exploited and reveal sensitive student data.

• Mitigation. When Retina finds vulnerabilities, it leads network administrators to the fastest fixes for them using hyperlinks and the latest remediation documentation.

• Documenting system security compliance. eEye Digital Security reports provide customers with comprehensive records for documenting FERPA compliance and a historical perspective of a network's security posture through delta and trending reports.

• Demonstrating protection from attack. The eEye Digital Security’s Blink Endpoint Protection Platform provides a high level of assurance of protection from an attack and from loss loss of critical student information.

• A Retina Network Security Scan can pinpoint vulnerabilities before hackers exploit them to obtain student information.

More detailed information regarding FERPA can be found at http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html