School Cyber Security - Structured Technology Solutions

Education

The Reality

Protecting Student & Parental Data is a Priority

Schools have a moral and legal obligation to protect student data and information security must be a priority for all educational leaders. Schools collect a significant amount of personal information on both staff and students and their families including:

Personal information: Names, addresses, photo ID, birth certificates, passports, and social security numbers
Parental information: Personal information, payment information, bank account numbers, financial data (such as monthly/annual income), migrant status, and work addresses
Student records: Disciplinary information, grades, and test scores
Medical information: Student health histories, conditions, and disabilities
Third-party data: Usernames, passwords, and metadata

The Problem

Few Schools Have Protections In Place

Schools are “data rich and resource poor.” Despite the various laws and regulations enacted to protect student data, very few schools possess the human and capital resources needed to truly protect this information.

Just How Big is the Threat?

According to Microsoft Security Intelligence, education is targeted nearly 10 times as much as the next industry worldwide – a staggering 7 million malware encounters in the past 30 days alone.

The Nationwide Cybersecurity Review (NCSR) gave K-12 schools a cyber maturity score of 3.55 out of 7 on their risk-based assessment. The NCSR found that 29 percent of K–12 participants in their report experienced a cyber incident in their district in the previous year.

In the past two years alone, some of the biggest school districts in the country were victims of ransomware attacks including Minneapolis School District and the Los Angeles Unified School District. While publicly funded schools are often the ones making headlines, private schools often have even fewer cyber protections in place.

The Solution

Outsourcing Your Security To Our Specialists

Schools are outsourcing their cybersecurity and data backups to companies who specialize in these services. While schools employ IT staff, these individuals are often specialists in educational technology integration and IT support; they are not always cybersecurity experts. These staff members are often stretched thin and, in an ideal world, they would be able to focus their energies on interacting with students and staff, informing campuses on technology best practices, and troubleshooting technology issues.

Managed services providers (MSPs) have the ability to offer advanced cybersecurity protections, such as MFA, web filtering, email spam protection, ransomware/malware protection, etc. at a lower rate than individual districts can secure themselves simply due to economies of scale. MSPs can also offer 24/7 monitoring which is a service districts simply can not afford in-house.

Leveraging an MSP allows districts to use tax bond funds to cover these essential IT services. This approach provides districts the greatest opportunity to use state provided salary budgets on essential technology integration specialists who are developing an entire generation of digital users!

Structured Technology Solutions Has Your Security Solution

Structured Technology Solutions (STS) offers multiple solutions to schools and districts of all sizes. From campuses employing a few dozen educators to districts with hundreds of employees and thousands of students, STS creates customized solutions for all our educational clients.

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Schools are Vulnerable Data-Rich Environments

In August of 2023, a professional survey found that an astonishing 80 percent of schools across 14 nations – including the U.S. – had been the victims of ransomware attacks in 2022. K-12 education was the single most targeted industry, edging out higher education and surpassing other sectors such as construction, government, and healthcare. Today, said CIS Director of Intelligence and Incident Response TJ Sayers, “We’re dealing with attacks on K-12 schools on a near weekly basis. They are data-rich environments and exceptionally vulnerable.”