OSS® for educationData protection and storage
Pupil data, physically disconnected.
Schools, MATs and universities hold some of the most sensitive personal data in existence. Offline Secure Storage (OSS) provides physical disconnection for your most vulnerable data.
Offline Secure Storage®OSS® for education- Protects
- The records you could not recreate
- Hardware
- Dedicated, except LUV
- When closed
- No standing network path
- Access
- Authorised, out of band, time-bound
- Hosted in
- Firevault Bunkers: Europe live, US and Middle East next
The reality
This is already happening in education.
Every incident here is a matter of public record. Each one involved data that was reachable from a live network at the moment of compromise.
- Safeguarding data off school networks
Safeguarding data is removed from school networks and placed on hardware with no network connection while it is closed.
- SEND records, identity-checked
SEND records are isolated behind identity-verified access, and stolen staff credentials alone do not open them.
- One school or a whole trust
Scalable from single schools to multi-academy trusts, with centralised offline protection and a full audit trail.
- Kido nurseries: 8,000 children.
Incident 1
- PowerSchool: student records.
Incident 2
- Capita: £14m ICO fine.
Incident 3
See the difference
The same stolen login. Two places to keep your records.
Choose a state to see what an intruder can reach.
Contracts, accounts and recovery copies share one connected estate. One stolen login, one supplier or one mistake reaches all of it.
The records you could not recreate sit on dedicated hardware with no standing network path. Access begins outside the normal network, on an authorised out-of-band request, for a time-bound session.
How OSS helps
Remove pupil data from every system attackers can reach.
Safeguarding, SEND and staff records are taken off school networks and written to dedicated RAID 1 drives inside a Firevault Bunker. When authorised staff need access, a physical connection is created after identity verification. When the session ends, the drives disconnect.
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What the guidance says
Backups that are not always connected.
The DfE’s standards ask schools and colleges to keep backups apart from the live network.
- Backups not permanently connected
DfE cyber security standards for schools and colleges
- Keep a backup offline
NCSC
The products
Which Offline Secure Storage® fits education?
Every tier is the same physical principle at a different scale. Pick the access pattern that matches how your team works.
- Physically offline between sessions.
Vault
- Ask from your registered phone and confirm it is you.
Open a session
- Work with your files for up to 120 minutes.
File Manager
- Opens on a day you choose each week, for 12 hours.
LUV
- From 20TB, growing in 20TB steps.
Storage
Use cases for education
What schools, trusts and universities take offline first.
The records that matter most, and the ones an attacker would most like to reach.
- Safeguarding and child protection files
Safeguarding
- SEND and pupil support records
Support
- HR and disciplinary records
People
- Governance, legal and incident files
Governance
- Archived complaints and case materials
Cases
How to get started
From discovery call to go-live.
Understand what you need to protect and how you operate.
- 1
Understand what you need to protect and how you operate.
- 2
Select your tier, capacity and access model.
- 3
Complete KYC/AML and set up multi-factor authentication.
- 4
Data ingestion, access policy activation and ongoing support.
Why Firevault
Physics, not promises.
Every Offline Secure Storage® instance is built on the same four physical principles.
- Physical storage
Offline Secure Storage instances are held on dedicated physical hard drives, not in S3 cloud buckets, shared storage pools or multi-tenant infrastructure. Your selected data is assigned to real hardware, with dedicated RAID 1 drives providing resilience.
- Physical ownership
Each Offline Secure Storage instance is allocated to a specific customer, with dedicated physical capacity and clearly defined ownership. Your data is not pooled, commingled or held within a shared storage estate.
- Physical control
Access begins outside the normal network path. An authorised out-of-band command, such as SMS, controls the physical Layer 1 connection to your #OSS instance. When access is not required, that network path is physically disconnected.
- Physical security
Your #OSS hardware is housed in carefully selected, professionally managed data centres with layered physical security, resilient power and environmental controls. Access is tightly controlled using three-factor authentication, including biometric identification, supported by 24/7 monitoring, restricted access zones and a complete audit trail.
Explore more
Related routes.
Questions
- Identity documents
- Board records
- Protect customer data
- Ransomware-proof recovery copies
- Gold copy backups
- All industries
Your next step
Protect the records that matter most.
Start with the records you could not recreate. Keep everything else where it works best.