Practical Cyber Security for School Leaders

School Districts across Wisconsin and the country have been thrust into a world where they need to produce meaningful remote education. During this time it is easy to put cyber preparedness on the back burner.  And, yet it is more important than ever to keep cyber security in the forefront. 

Physical Infrastructure  That little server closet that sits in the corner of one of your buildings has now suddenly become one of the most important rooms in your district.  COVID, without question, has made education challenging, but if you were to suddenly lose your network that challenge would become immensely greater.

1.     Ensure that our network infrastructure is physically secure.

2.     Ensure your district's backup systems are working properly and tested regularly.

3.     Ask your IT team if there is any single point of failure that might halt learning.  If there is, solutions are needed to create redundancy.

4.     Ensure regular patching of all systems including the ones in your student’s hands.

Human Infrastructure  Just like your network closet there are people in your district with a unique skill set who make all the technology magic work.  How are you keeping them safe?

1. Distribute your IT team throughout the district and limit contact with each other. Losing one to a COVID quarantine should not mean losing all of them to a COVID quarantine.

2. Verify your district’s IT team has everything they need to work remotely.

3. Create a list of vendors, services provided and main contacts.

4. Develop processes to repair equipment with limited contact to staff and students.

5. Have a network outage plan. 

With great power comes great responsibility:  Everyone in your district with an email address can be a cyber champion, or victim.  Cybercrime is on the rise during COVID and the bad actors love preying on those who are in technology unfamiliar situations.  Social engineering attacks like phishing and phone scams are often the bad actors' vehicle of choice and how they access your network.

1. Take time to talk to staff and students about their role in cyber prevention.  Cyber and data security is everyone's responsibility.

2. Educate staff and students to NEVER give out their username and/or password in any form, either over the phone or to an unfamiliar website.

3. If you see something say something.  Reporting a suspicious email will make the difference in stopping a phishing campaign. 

Taking time to ensure your technology system remains ubiquitous is always important, now more than ever.  The steps you take today will prove to be the difference between students attending school virtually today and not at all tomorrow.