Academic Intelligence

Security Overview

Version: 1.0
Effective date: 12 May 2026
Website: checkitquick.academicintelligence.co.uk
Service provider: Academic Intelligence Ltd
Registered office: 60 Viceroy Court, 36 Dingwall Road, Croydon, England, CR0 2NG
Company number: 17204358 (Companies House)
Contact email: [email protected]
Privacy contact: [email protected]
Hosting location: London, United Kingdom (see section 4)

1. Purpose of this Security Overview

This Security Overview explains the technical and organisational measures used to protect the website and service available at checkitquick.academicintelligence.co.uk, referred to as the Service.

The Service is used by schools, academy trusts, colleges and other educational organisations to help parents, guardians, carers and authorised users check, confirm, submit or update information held by the school about parents and child pupils.

The Service may connect to school systems, including iSAMS and MySchoolPortal single sign-on, where configured by the school.

This document is intended to help school leaders, IT teams, data protection officers, compliance teams and procurement teams understand:

2. Security Approach

We take a risk-based approach to security.

The Service is designed around the following principles:

The UK National Cyber Security Centre’s cloud security principles include data-in-transit protection, asset protection and resilience, separation between customers and governance. These principles are useful when assessing cloud-hosted services such as this one.

3. Service Summary

The Service may perform the following functions, depending on the school’s configuration:

The Service is not intended to act as a replacement school MIS or a permanent secondary database of parent or pupil records.

4. Data Hosting Location

The Service application is hosted on OVHcloud VPS infrastructure (OpenStack region os-uk2, London, United Kingdom).

The PostgreSQL database is provided by Neon with compute in AWS Europe West 2 (London), United Kingdom.

The core Service infrastructure is intended to keep school, parent and pupil processing within the United Kingdom.

Where third-party providers are used for hosting, infrastructure, security, monitoring, support, email or diagnostics, details are listed in our subprocessor information (Subprocessor list).

5. Data Processed by the Service

Depending on configuration, the Service may process the following categories of data.

5.1 School Configuration Data

This may include:

5.2 API Keys, Secrets and Integration Credentials

This may include:

5.3 Parent, Guardian and Carer Data

This may include:

5.4 Pupil Data

This may include:

5.5 Technical and Security Data

This may include:

6. Data Minimisation

The Service is designed to minimise the amount of personal data stored by us.

The Service normally retrieves parent and pupil data from the school’s iSAMS database only when needed for the relevant workflow.

The Service is designed so that it does not retain a permanent copy of full parent or pupil records after the processing session, except where limited data is required for:

Where logs or audit records contain personal data, access is restricted and retention is limited.

7. Data in Transit

The Service uses encrypted connections for browser access.

Public access to the Service is provided over HTTPS/TLS.

The ICO notes that all versions of SSL have known vulnerabilities and must not be used for public-facing HTTPS implementations.

Where technically supported by third-party systems, communication with iSAMS, MySchoolPortal and related systems should also use secure encrypted channels.

Schools should ensure that any iSAMS or MySchoolPortal endpoints configured for use with the Service are configured securely and made available only as required.

8. Data at Rest

The Service stores only the data required for operation, configuration, security, support and legal purposes.

Stored data may include:

Where technically available and appropriate, data at rest is protected using encryption, managed cloud storage controls, database security controls or equivalent measures.

The ICO states that encryption is not mandated for every item of personal data, but it is specifically recognised as an example of an appropriate technical measure and can help protect stored personal information from unauthorised access.

9. API Key and Secret Protection

API keys, API secrets, SSO configuration values and related credentials are treated as sensitive security information.

The Service uses the following measures to protect them:

10. Administrator Access

School administrator access is limited to authorised users.

Administrators may be able to:

Schools are responsible for ensuring that only appropriate staff are appointed as administrators.

Schools should promptly remove administrator access when staff leave, change roles or no longer need access.

School administrators currently authenticate via Google sign-in where configured; multi-factor authentication is available through Google account security settings but is not separately mandated by the Service beyond that identity provider.

The NCSC provides guidance on using SaaS securely, including configuring and maintaining SaaS applications to reduce common attack risks.

11. Authentication and Single Sign-On

The Service may use MySchoolPortal single sign-on where configured by the school.

Single sign-on may provide identity information such as:

The school is responsible for configuring MySchoolPortal correctly and ensuring that only authorised users can authenticate.

We do not independently verify parental responsibility, guardianship, court orders, family restrictions, safeguarding restrictions or entitlement to access unless this is reflected in the school’s own systems and configuration.

12. Access Control and Least Privilege

Access to the Service and its data is controlled using a least-privilege approach.

This means:

The school is responsible for configuring iSAMS and MySchoolPortal permissions so that the Service only receives access to appropriate data and functions.

13. Tenant Separation

The Service is designed to separate one school’s data and configuration from another school’s data and configuration.

Tenant separation measures may include:

No school should be able to access another school’s configuration, API credentials or data through normal use of the Service.

14. Personnel Access

Our personnel may access customer data only where necessary for legitimate purposes, including:

Personnel access is restricted to authorised individuals.

Personnel with access to customer data are subject to confidentiality obligations.

Where reasonably practicable, support and troubleshooting are performed using minimal, anonymised, redacted or test data.

15. Logging and Monitoring

The Service may create logs for security, reliability, diagnostics and audit purposes.

Logs may include:

Logs are used to:

Logs are not intended to store full parent or pupil records unless technically necessary for error handling, support or audit purposes.

Access to logs is restricted to authorised personnel.

Log retention is limited to the period reasonably required for security, support, audit and operational purposes.

Current log retention: typically between 30 and 180 days unless a longer period is temporarily needed for a security investigation (consistent with our Privacy Policy).

16. Backups and Resilience

The Service may use backups to support availability, recovery and resilience.

Backup measures may include:

Backups may contain school configuration, API credentials, logs or limited personal data depending on the state of the system at the time of backup.

Backups are retained for a limited period.

Current backup retention: typically up to approximately 90 days unless operational needs require otherwise.

Backups are not used for ordinary access and are restored only where necessary for service continuity, security investigation, disaster recovery or legal requirements.

17. Vulnerability Management

We take reasonable steps to identify and address security vulnerabilities.

Measures may include:

18. Secure Development

We aim to follow secure development practices.

These may include:

Developers and administrators should avoid copying parent, pupil or API secret data into local files, screenshots, emails or support tickets unless necessary for troubleshooting and appropriately protected.

19. Change Management

Changes to the Service are managed to reduce the risk of disruption or security issues.

This may include:

Security-impacting changes are reviewed with additional care.

20. Incident Response

We maintain a process for identifying, investigating and responding to security incidents.

A security incident may include:

When an incident is identified, we aim to:

Where an incident involves personal data processed on behalf of a school, we will notify the school in accordance with our Data Processing Agreement.

The ICO explains that personal data breaches may need to be reported depending on the risk to people’s rights and freedoms.

For practical steps and contacts, see our Breach notification process.

21. Personal Data Breach Notification

Where we become aware of a personal data breach affecting personal data processed on behalf of a school, we will notify the school without undue delay.

Our notification may include, where available:

Information may be provided in stages if the investigation is ongoing.

The school remains responsible for deciding whether it must notify the ICO, parents, pupils, staff or other parties where the school is the controller.

22. Data Deletion and Offboarding

When a school stops using the Service, we will delete or disable relevant school data in accordance with the applicable agreement.

This may include:

Some data may be retained where required for:

Retained data remains protected and is deleted when no longer required.

23. Subprocessors and Third-Party Providers

We use third-party providers to help host, operate, secure, support or maintain the Service.

Provider Purpose Location
OVHcloud Hosting application runtime, networking, backups where configured on this infrastructure OpenStack os-uk2, London (United Kingdom)
Neon Managed PostgreSQL database (including automated backups per Neon) AWS Europe West 2 (London), United Kingdom
Stripe Subscription payment processing where online billing applies Per Stripe’s documentation; appropriate transfer mechanisms where applicable
GitHub Source control and deployment automation (typically limited operational metadata) Per GitHub’s documentation; appropriate safeguards where applicable
Transactional email Operational notifications where configured SMTP or transactional provider as deployed; enquire via [email protected] if you require the processor identity for registers
iSAMS School MIS integration As contracted by the school
MySchoolPortal Single sign-on As contracted by the school

We require subprocessors that process personal data on our behalf to use appropriate security measures.

A current subprocessor list is available at our Subprocessor list and static mirror /legal/subprocessor-list.html.

DPIA support materials for schools are in our DPIA Support Documentation (full text on the Service; introductory mirror at /legal/dpia-support-documentation.html).

24. International Transfers

The core application and primary database are hosted in London, United Kingdom.

Where third-party providers process personal data outside the United Kingdom, we use appropriate safeguards where required, such as:

Schools may request further information about international transfers where needed for their own due diligence.

25. Security Responsibilities of Schools

Security is shared between us and each school.

Schools are responsible for:

Schools should not provide API keys or secrets by ordinary email unless necessary and appropriately protected.

Schools should not share administrator login details.

Schools should test configuration before enabling the Service widely.

26. Recommended School Configuration Checklist

Before enabling the Service, schools should consider the following checklist.

27. Security Limitations

No online service can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

The Service depends on:

We are not responsible for security incidents caused by:

28. Security Contact

Security concerns, suspected vulnerabilities or suspected unauthorised access should be reported to:

Security contact: [email protected]
Privacy contact: [email protected]
Website: checkitquick.academicintelligence.co.uk

For security incidents, include Security incident in the email subject line. For vulnerability reports, include Security vulnerability in the subject line.

Please include as much detail as possible, including:

Do not include API secrets, passwords or unnecessary personal data in ordinary email.

29. Vulnerability Disclosure

If you believe you have found a security vulnerability in the Service, please report it responsibly.

You must not:

We will review credible vulnerability reports and take appropriate action based on risk.

Vulnerability reporting email: [email protected]

30. Compliance Documentation

Schools may request reasonable security and compliance information for due diligence purposes.

Depending on the request, we may provide:

Some information may be provided under confidentiality restrictions where it could affect security, commercial confidentiality or other customers.

31. Data Protection by Design

The Service is designed to support data protection by design and by default.

This includes:

The ICO says data protection by design and by default requires organisations to embed data protection into systems, services and processes from the design phase and throughout their lifecycle.

32. Procurement and assurance snapshot

The following summary is provided for school procurement and due diligence. It is illustrative of current practices and is not an exhaustive list of controls or a certification claim.

For a practical school-side checklist before go-live, see section 2.2 of our DPIA Support Documentation.

Schedule 1 — Current Security Controls

Area Current control
Website hosting locationOVHcloud OpenStack os-uk2, London, United Kingdom
Database hosting locationNeon managed PostgreSQL — AWS Europe West 2 (London), United Kingdom
HTTPS/TLSEnabled for public browser access (TLS termination at the reverse proxy / hosting edge)
Legacy SSLNot used for public HTTPS; TLS aligned with current practice
API secret storageASP.NET Core Data Protection at application layer before persistence; keys stored in PostgreSQL (DataProtectionKeys) with restricted operations access
Database encryption at restProvider-default encryption at rest for Neon managed PostgreSQL
Backup encryptionNeon automated backups and any VPS snapshots protected by provider access controls and provider-default encryption options
Backup retentionTypically up to approximately 90 days unless operational needs require otherwise
Log retentionTypically between 30 and 180 days unless a longer period is temporarily needed for a security investigation
Administrator MFAAvailable via Google account security settings where Google sign-in is used; not separately mandated by the Service
Staff MFARequired where enforced by our hosting, database and payment provider consoles for administrative access
Tenant separationLogical separation by school account
Support access controlsRestricted to authorised personnel
Vulnerability scanningRisk-based dependency and patch management; no continuous third-party vulnerability scanning product deployed at publication
Penetration testingNot performed on a fixed periodic schedule
Error monitoringApplication and hosting logs; no dedicated third-party error tracking product integrated at publication
Email providerSMTP or transactional provider as configured for the deployment (contact [email protected] for register-level identity)
Hosting providerOVHcloud (application); Neon (database)
Incident contact[email protected]

Schedule 2 — Data Retention Summary

Data category Retention
Parent/pupil records retrieved from iSAMSNot intended to be permanently stored; processed transiently during use
Submitted updatesRetained only as needed for transmission, confirmation, audit, support or dispute handling
API keys and secretsRetained while school uses the Service; deleted or disabled on termination/request, subject to backups/legal retention
School configurationRetained while school uses the Service; deleted after termination, subject to backups/legal retention
Administrator account detailsRetained while account is active and for a reasonable period afterwards
Security logsTypically between 30 and 180 days unless a longer period is temporarily needed for a security investigation
Application logsTypically between 30 and 180 days unless a longer period is temporarily needed for a security investigation
Support recordsTypically 12 to 24 months unless deletion is requested earlier and is lawful
BackupsTypically up to approximately 90 days unless operational needs require otherwise
Billing/accounting recordsRetained as required for accounting, tax, legal and business records (often up to six years where UK requirements apply)

Schedule 3 — Incident Severity Guide

Severity Example Indicative response
CriticalConfirmed unauthorised access to API secrets or cross-school data exposureImmediate containment, urgent investigation, notify affected school without undue delay
HighSuspected compromise of admin account or unauthorised data accessRestrict access, investigate, notify school where appropriate
MediumSecurity misconfiguration, limited data exposure risk or suspicious activityInvestigate, remediate, monitor and inform school if needed
LowMinor vulnerability with no known data exposureFix according to risk and development schedule

Schedule 4 — School Due Diligence Answers

Where is the Service hosted?
The application runs on OVHcloud VPS in London (os-uk2). The PostgreSQL database is hosted with Neon in AWS Europe West 2 (London).
Does the Service permanently store parent and pupil records?
The Service is designed not to permanently store full parent or pupil records after the processing session, except where limited information is needed for logs, audit trails, support, troubleshooting, backups, security or legal purposes.
Does the Service store API keys or secrets?
Yes. The Service stores API keys, secrets and integration settings required to connect to school systems such as iSAMS and MySchoolPortal.
Are API keys and secrets protected?
Yes. API keys and secrets are treated as sensitive security information and are protected using access controls and application-layer encryption (ASP.NET Core Data Protection) before storage.
Who configures the API keys?
An authorised school administrator enters or configures the API keys and secrets.
Who controls iSAMS permissions?
The school controls iSAMS permissions and is responsible for ensuring that API access is appropriate and not excessive.
Does the Service use MySchoolPortal SSO?
Yes, where configured by the school.
Can one school access another school’s data?
No. The Service is designed to logically separate school accounts and prevent one school from accessing another school’s data through normal use.
Are logs kept?
Yes. Logs may be kept for security, support, diagnostics and audit purposes.
Are logs limited?
Logs are intended to be limited to what is necessary for security, support, diagnostics and audit purposes, and are not intended to store full parent or pupil records unless technically necessary.
What happens if there is a breach?
We will investigate, contain and mitigate the incident. Where the breach affects personal data processed on behalf of a school, we will notify the school without undue delay in accordance with our Data Processing Agreement.
Can schools request more information?
Yes. Use [email protected]; include a clear subject (for example Security vulnerability or Security incident) for security-related questions.

Schedule 5 — Website Short Version

checkitquick.academicintelligence.co.uk is hosted in London, United Kingdom (application on OVHcloud; database with Neon on AWS London). The Service connects to school systems, including iSAMS and MySchoolPortal where configured by the school, to help authorised users check and update school-held parent and pupil information. The Service is designed not to permanently store full parent or pupil records after the processing session, except where limited information is required for logs, audit trails, support, troubleshooting, backups, security or legal purposes. API keys, secrets and SSO settings required for integrations are stored securely and treated as sensitive security information. Access is restricted, school accounts are logically separated, and HTTPS/TLS is used for browser access. Schools remain responsible for configuring iSAMS and MySchoolPortal permissions appropriately and for managing their own administrator access.

This overview is illustrative of current practices and does not constitute a warranty of any particular certification or control implementation.

Last updated: 12 May 2026.