Security and your data

How Atlas protects an institution’s records today. Each point below is how the product works now, not a plan.

1. 01

   Kept apart

   Every institution’s records sit in one database, separated by the database itself. Each request is tied to one institution, and the database refuses to return or change another institution’s rows. The application is not left to remember to filter.

2. 02

   Grade changes recorded

   Each change to a result is written to an audit log with who made it and when; a spreadsheet upload or a recompute is logged as one entry. Your registry can read that log, which is how a disputed grade is traced.

3. 03

   The right access for each role

   Administrators hold one of three tiers — registrar, records officer or viewer — and each tier sees and does only what it allows. Lecturers see and enter results only for their own courses, apart from appeals escalated to their head of department. Students see only their own records.

4. 04

   Support access

   When the Atlas team helps with a problem, it can view your screens but cannot change anything: every change is refused, the access ends after a set time, and each visit is recorded.

5. 05

   Backups and recovery

   Encrypted copies of the database are scheduled every six hours. Restoring from them has been rehearsed: the restore drills have actually been run, not just written down.

6. 06

   Verifiable transcripts

   Every transcript carries a QR code. Scanning it shows the record Atlas holds — name, CGPA and class of degree — so a transcript with an altered name, CGPA or class shows up as one.

7. 07

   Accounts and sign-in

   Repeated failed sign-ins lock an account for a period, and people reset a forgotten password themselves, by email.