Cyber and Data Resources that Won’t Break the Bank

by Ed Snow and Annette Smith, Wisconsin DPI

There are ways to protect your district’s infrastructure and data that will not stress the budget. The following are excellent resources provided through state or federal grant dollars that EVERY district and school in WI should be using. For your convenience you can find links to each resource listed below at www.dpi.wi.gov/cyber-security

Wisconsin Cyber Response Team (CRT)​:​ If you take nothing more from this article, write down this number and post it in your data center, and enter it in your phone (​1-800-943-0003​). TheWisconsin Cyber Response Team should be your first call (or second if you have cyber insurance) in the event of a data compromise. The teams are extremely experienced at providing incident response, guidance and forensics.

Multi State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) ​​MS-ISAC is free to join​ ​and offers a host of Cyber security tools including a powerful knowledge community, a set of controls (best practices) and benchmarks for those controls. MS-ISAC is also a trusted partner for cyber alert advisories. Additionally MS-ISAC offers ongoing webinars and time sensitive announcements.

Wisconsin Student Privacy Alliance (WSPA)​ ​What data is your district sending to vendors? The WSPA is a Wisconsin DPI funded, no cost to you tool that helps districts by providing legally vetted data sharing agreements, and a database to track your data sharing agreements. Additionally you can view other Wisconsin and national school district data sharing agreements to leverage as needed.

Protecting Technical Assistance Center (PTAC)​ ​A branch of The U.S. Department of Education, PTAC provides valuable guidance on FERPA,and has some nice free resources. Some of the many resources include a data breach response training kit, data security checklist, data destruction best practices and timely security announcements. PTAC regularly hosts timely Webinar around data and cyber security.

Future Privacy Forum (FPF)​ ​In addition to being a strong reference for all things data privacy, the FPF provides a wealth of resources including FAQ’s webinars, speakers and just released a Student Privacy Communications Toolkit​ to help engage your community on the importance of student data privacy.

WETL/CoSN annual CTO clinic February 26th 9 AM - 2 PM ​​The theme for 2021's CTO CLINIC is Incident Planning: Putting it All Together. Teams of school and district leaders gather at this yearly event for hands on learning and sharing to address ongoing technology issues. The clinic will consist of a tabletop exercise where a district can practice their incident response plan and learn from experts in the field. ​Registration​ is free.

Our state and federal government recognize the need for quality cyber and data security resources for K-12 school districts. Government funded programs like the ones listed in this article are available to school districts to utilize when protecting our staff and students. If you have any questions or are interested in additional resources please visit www.dpi.wi.gov/cyber-security​. Please contact Ed Snow or Dr. Annette Smith at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction with any questions. ​[email protected]​, [email protected]