DfE spends £3m on security software for laptop scheme

Written by Sam Trendall on 29 May 2020 in News
News

Department is to deploy Cisco Umbrella products

Credit: Pxhere

The Department for Education has spent £2.8m on Cisco security software to protect the laptops it is providing to children who would otherwise lack access to computing platforms during the coronavirus crisis.

The DfE has just begun the process of rolling out more than 200,000 laptops and tablets, which will be allocated to local authorities and academy trusts based on how estimates of how many of their pupils are eligible for the scheme. Devices are being provided to “vulnerable and disadvantaged” children that are care leavers, supported by a social worker, or are preparing for year 10 exams. Devices will be provided with 4G dongles to enable internet connectivity.

The government has committed an estimated £85m to the scheme, and a newly published contract notice reveals that £2.8m has been spent on a year-long deal for Cisco Umbrella licences. The software will be supplied and supported by IT services firm Computacenter. 


Related content


The DfE said: “The contract relates to the provision of an internet content filtering software in order to meet the Department for Education's requirement to limit access to relevant and safe content in the internet for vulnerable and disadvantaged children in England, through devices provided by the Department as part of an initiative to make remote education and social care services accessible for children and young people during the coronavirus outbreak. Schools and local authorities will also have the ability to install their own content filtering set up on devices that best suits their needs.”

The deal came into effect on 14 May and runs until 13 May 2021. The contract was awarded via lot three of the Technology Products and Associated Services framework.

 

About the author

Sam Trendall is editor of PublicTechnology

Share this page

Tags

Categories

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM READERS

Please login to post a comment or register for a free account.

Related Articles

Police seeks tech to investigate crypto crime
29 March 2023

City of London force plans to spend £1.8m on forensics investigation service available to all UK law-enforcement agencies

‘Extremely concerned and disappointed’ – more councils caught up in Capita breach
24 May 2023

Authorities have complained about the lack of time taken to be notified by IT firm and wrongly being told personal data was not put at risk 

MoD seeks senior exec to boost ‘cyber awareness, behaviours and culture’ across defence sector
23 May 2023

Role comes with a remit to work with current and former military personnel, as well as officials and commercial suppliers

Interview: CDDO chief Lee Devlin on the ‘move from being disruptive to collaborative’
23 May 2023

In the first of a series of exclusive interviews, the head of government’s ‘Digital HQ’ talks to PublicTechnology about the Central Digital and Data Office’s work to unlock £8bn...

Related Sponsored Articles

Proactive defence: A new take on cyber security
16 May 2023

The traditional reactive approach to cybersecurity, which involves responding to attacks after they have occurred, is no longer sufficient. Murielle Gonzalez reports on a webinar looking at...