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In the modern cybersecurity landscape, the frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks continue to escalate at an alarming pace. According to Gartner, 45% of companies worldwide are expected to be impacted by cyberattacks by 2025.A study by Cybersecurity Ventures states that a cyberattack took place every 39 seconds in 2023, emphasising the necessity for robust defence mechanisms within organisations.

Network Time Protocol (NTP) is an essential component of modern networking, ensuring precise synchronisation of clocks across systems, whether over local networks or the internet.

Developed in the 1980s by Dr David Mills at the University of Delaware, NTP is one of the oldest networking protocols still in active use. Its fundamental aim is to align all participating devices to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), thereby making operations reliable and keeping data integrity across networks. It’s worth noting that Dr Mills, who passed away in January 2024, is fondly remembered as the internet’s “father time” for his work on NTP.

The transport and logistics sector is a critical driver of the global economy, facilitating the movement of goods and people while contributing significantly to national GDPs. It is also becoming an attractive target for cybercriminals. In the last two years transportation has been one of the most attacked sectors after manufacturing. The consequences of these incidents, from data breaches to operational disruptions, show the urgent need for robust cybersecurity measures.

Time precision is important to everyone in a transport hub. As a traveller, you want to make sure you don’t miss your plane or train. As a transport operator, you need your passengers to be confident that the time displayed is correct, and be able to keep your services running on time.

To do this, all devices on your IT network must receive a single time reference that is constantly available, accurate and reliable. A time server will help; here we examine exactly how.

We are all used to the MP3 format, mostly for playing music on mobile devices. Did you know it can be used for other types of audio message, such as intrusion alerts?

In hospitals and other medical settings, accurate timekeeping is essential to maintain patient safety and run efficient processes. However, have you considered how the need for hygiene and cleanliness impacts on the time-management systems chosen for your healthcare setting?

It goes without saying that schools have a duty to both pupils and staff to provide the best security possible.

Part of this duty is to have an effective lockdown system in place. Because emergency events are random, schools can do little to prevent them – but they can control how they respond.

There are numerous protocols for synchronising clocks within a network infrastructure. The most known are NTP (network Time Protocol) and SNTP (Simple NTP), but when the utmost precision is required, the PTP (Precision Time Protocol) is chosen.

PTP was introduced in 2002 (in the IEEE 1588 standard) and has undergone numerous evolutions since (the latest version of the standard dates from 2019).

One of the most important algorithmic components of PTP is the BMCA (Best Master Clock Algorithm). BMCA allows you to establish a hierarchy of clocks (also called timing hierarchy or timing tree) and selects, within this hierarchy, the best master clock amongst all other clocks in the network. This master clock will then provide the time reference for all devices in the network.

A school’s culture should aim to build a strong community, a sense of belonging for pupils and a vision for the whole school. As a result, it can build trust and respect between staff and pupils.

In order to ensure the culture is implemented, there needs to be a desire for the culture to be fulfilled by all; this can be a challenge when trying to get pupils involved.

What does a modern school culture look like? How can you adapt to the changing needs of pupils?