Many school systems rely on Google Workspace as their primary collaboration platform for both faculty and students. This is common across K–12 and Higher Education, as Google has historically provided an affordable solution with robust capabilities that align closely with the operational needs of educational institutions.
The Problem K–12 Schools Face:
With this widespread adoption, however, comes an increased risk of data exposure. A key challenge is that both faculty and students use the same environment, often with limited oversight and controls over who has access to what data - internally and externally.
There are two key questions that need to be addressed in order to create a safe, compliant, and protected environment for K-12 education when it comes to student and faculty data.
- How can controls be implemented to ensure that students cannot access faculty data when working within the same tenant under subdomains?
- How can institutions ensure that sensitive student information managed by faculty is not overexposed to expired or unauthorized external parties?
3 Main Challenges for K–12 Schools When Using Google Workspace:
- Establishing ethical walls between student and faculty data to prevent students from accessing sensitive faculty or institutional information.
- Ensuring that student data - such as Special Education status, health information (which would constitute a HIPAA violation if exposed), grades, and family history - is properly secured and not exposed to unauthorized individuals. Exposure of this nature places the school, students, and families at significant risk.
- Managing access for contracted workers who often use personal email accounts during peak seasons. Once they leave, schools need clear visibility and control to revoke this data access and ensure no lingering exposure.
Customer Success Story: K–12 School in Massachusetts (10,000+ Students and Faculty)
When this school initially approached DoControl, they were unaware of all the risks we outlined above, but they were curious - and for good reason.
They wanted to understand whether they might face related challenges, and had an inkling that their data might have been exposed as a result of years and years of unmanaged and unmonitored sharing.
After conducting our Free Risk Assessment, the results revealed far greater exposure than expected:
- 675,000 assets shared publicly - accessible to anyone with a link
- ~1,700,000 assets shared externally with untrusted domains
- 4,600,000 assets shared organization-wide across both students and faculty
Some of the publicly exposed assets included password information, confidential student health data, and sensitive family history records.
The Free Risk Assessment provided critical visibility into risks that Google’s native tools could NOT address, leading the school to take immediate action.
They realized that pinpointed remediation and scalable workflows were essential to resolving their problem effectively and seamlessly.
Metrics & Outcomes:
With full visibility into their exposure, our customer was able to justify the investment in a comprehensive solution, and began leveraging DoControl’s key differentiators: scalable workflow automation and bulk remediation capabilities.
With DoControl, they:
- Remediated over 1,000,000 sensitive assets, saving more than 50,000 hours in manual remediation and reducing the overall risk landscape by over 90%
- Built a targeted external/public DLP sharing workflow to automatically detect and remediate risks as they occurred, all while sending educational messages to end users when policies were breached
- Implemented structured groups and policies to maintain strict separation between student and faculty data
We’re proud to partner with this forward-thinking K–12 school system, helping our new customer create a safer, more secure digital environment for every student, every family, and every faculty member involved.
Our shared success can be traced back to their natural curiosity and openness to learning about the exposure that was looming.
Our Free Risk Assessment paved the way for a collaborative partnership rooted in trust and shared purpose. After their exposure results came back, the next steps were obvious.
Together, we’ve strengthened their security posture, ensured ongoing compliance, and reinforced their mission to provide a safe and empowering educational experience for all.
