Security breaches resulting from poor password hygiene can be devastating for a business, but in a K–12 setting breaches can have other negative implications, says Joel Snyder, a senior IT consultant with Opus One.
“In a school setting, you’re not just worried about some hacker on the internet, you’re worried about students creating mischief, and not understanding what they’re doing,” says Snyder. “It’s a difficult environment, where misauthentication or misauthorization can have a lot of repercussions, not just for whomever is being impersonated, but also for the student who might be impersonating them.”
Here’s what IT leaders in K–12 schools can do to counteract poor password decisions and help keep their networks secure.
Multifactor Authentication Is a Must
Multifactor authentication, a security technology that requires multiple methods of verifying a user’s identity, is a requirement for K–12 networks, says Snyder.
“MFA needs to be your go-to technology because it cuts your risk so tremendously. It takes an enormous window of opportunity and makes it much, much smaller,” he says. “That’s why it’s worth spending money on, and it’s worth getting outside help with. It’s worth doing whatever it takes to get MFA.”