Office Memo 17
Office Memo 17
17 March 2005

Children in care get top IT security
The best computer security products are traditionally aimed at banks, government bodies, insurers and pharmaceutical companies. It is remarkable, therefore, to hear of young people being put to the top of the pile when it comes to IT security. CareZone is a Web site aimed at improving the lives of children in the care of a local authority. The site lets these children securely communicate on-line with others in a similar situation and with social workers, doctors and others.
CareZone has been set up by The Who Cares? Trust, a charity that provides services to 60,000 children in Britain who are 'in care'. These are children and young people up to 18 years old who have been taken from their families for their safety or well-being. They are placed with foster parents or in a group home, sometimes just at weekends.
The trust employed the design agency, Lightmaker, to build the site. Through it, the children have an exclusive zone in which to communicate with other children in care. The site provides advice, the opportunity to offer feedback, online help from counsellors and doctors, and a secure place to communicate with care staff. Children can get access to it from whichever care home they are in.
Within the site there is a three-dimensional chatroom. Here, the children can talk about problems such as bullying, being parted from brothers and sisters or being moved from one care home to another. The site also provides a safe communication network where children know their emails will not be read by anyone else. Games, noticeboards and help with homework are also available.
Digital vault
The site is built around a digital vault provided by Cyber-Ark, which gives the children a safe place to store information. Banks or large institutions use the same system to store administrative passwords.
Children store their online diaries in the vault to write, providing privacy for their thoughts and feelings. This has been a sure winner compared to the traditional physical diary. Most children mistrust these, as they can easily be found and read by other children or by staff. Children also use the vault as a digital safe for birth certificates, photographs, education records or personal education plans.
The local authorities concerned with the children are now using the vault, too. It helps them get legal paperwork done, and questionnaires and personal educational plans completed. They can email notifications to the children that they have posted a document or information in their safes. The children then read the document, take any necessary action and return it into the safe. According to the local authorities this has saved time and money - paperwork can be sent out centrally and completed quickly and securely.
Nine local authorities subscribed to the site when it was launched. Now, 35 local authorities use it, for 1,200 children. The site has become so popular that Lightmaker and “The Who Cares? Trust” have approached Canadian and Dutch local authorities to develop the site for their children in care.
Logging on safely
For the CareZone site to be a success, The Who Cares? Trust and Lightmaker had to ensure the children's anonymity was always protected. There needed to be a secure method of access at the first point of logging on. The system had also to protect and manage the identities of all users - adult or child. Lightmaker and the Trust worked with Diagonal Security, an information security specialist, to find the right system for authenticating users.
They chose RSA SecurID from RSA Security. The system's two-factor authentication method gives ease of use, reliability and high levels of security. It is another system of the kind normally found in a top bank or financial institution. All 1,200 children have an RSA token, and use this, with a user name and PIN, to gain access to the site.
Tokens can be posted from a central point, which has proved to be convenient, inexpensive and quick. Local authorities have welcomed the RSA tokens, as they can be reassigned quickly if people lose them or no longer need them.
Security for the site doesn't stop at the entry point. Once the children are in, they must answer further questions to use email or access the message board and chatrooms as well as all other features of CareZone. Security is even higher around the vault. The children must enter another password to get into it.
Bryan Sayle is a director at Lightmaker and has been involved at every stage of the CareZone development. He says, “Although it seems that we have created a site like a Fort Knox, with really strong access and encryption, to the users it is very simple and easy to use. At no point have we had any complaints from the children saying how difficult it is to access the site. They all naturally respect the security, look after their tokens and get on with it. It's their world and we want them to feel confident and safe with it.”
Jan Roszkowski, the Director of Carezone, says: “The site has been a great success with the children and the professionals in the care industry. There are 60,000 children currently in care in the UK and 480,000 adults supporting these children and so there is a real demand for a site specifically targeted at this group. We hope in time that many more children in care in the UK will have access to the site.”
Everyone involved is looking forward to the future of CareZone and the opportunities it offers children in care. This development is leading the way in Internet security. Its use gives children in care with a much-needed environment in which to communicate, learn and store information online.

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Yvonne Eskenzi of Eskenzi PR contributed this article. Our thanks go to her. Yvonne can be contacted on 0208 449 8292 or yvonne@eskenzipr.com.
More details of the main organizations mentioned can be found at their Web sites:


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