Student Records—Increased Security and Authentication with Time Synchronization

Synchronizing a network to one time source immediately improves an education institution’s ability to authenticate and verify the creation and alteration of documents – critical for protecting student records. Synchronizing time across a network produces verified time stamps, on which the authenticity of digital signatures depends. The time stamp must be secure, accurate, and reliable—both for purposes of synchronization and to protect the confidentiality of student records. A GPSGlobal Positioning System is a navigation satellite system. See also NTPNTP, or Network Time Protocol, is a widely used networking protocol that enables computers and devices to synchronize their system clocks with a reference time source. It ensures accurate timekeeping in computer networks by allowing devices to obtain precise time information from NTP servers, which are typically synchronized to highly accurate atomic clocks. NTP is essential for various applications and services that rely on synchronized time, such as network security, authentication, and data logging. time server is a simple network element to support compliance to FERPA and similar requirements