Nation-state adversaries and cybercriminals continue to launch cyberattacks at an unmatched pace across all industries, and the education sector is in their crosshairs.
Education is among the most heavily targeted sectors due to its vast stores of valuable data and its comparatively weak security measures. Adversaries are aware of the personal data that schools, district offices, libraries and other targets hold, as well as the security shortcomings that create a low barrier to entry. K–12 institutions often struggle with outdated IT equipment and tight budgets that limit their ability to upgrade tools. Staff are often unaware of modern cybersecurity threats and protective measures due to lack of training.
When cyberattacks hit schools and libraries, the consequences can be severe. School districts may take weeks or even months to recover from disruptions, incurring additional expenses that further strain their budgets. Even more serious, a cyberattack can significantly impact student education. Strengthening cybersecurity in the education sector is essential.
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Government Regulations Protect Schools and Libraries
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has taken productive steps to counteract these evolving cybersecurity threats and better protect the sensitive data that educational institutions harbor. The FCC’s Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program is designed to provide essential cybersecurity services and equipment to K–12 schools and libraries to ensure students can pursue education without disruption from cyberattacks.
This program will provide $200 million in funding to participating schools and libraries to pay for eligible cybersecurity services and equipment over a three-year period. During this time, the FCC will collect relevant data on the funding’s effectiveness with the goal of making the program permanent.
Schools and school districts will be eligible to receive a minimum of $13.60 per student or $15,000 (whichever is higher) to purchase eligible cybersecurity services and equipment over the program’s duration. The funding will have an immediate impact on the cybersecurity posture of participating organizations.
The Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program is modeled in many ways after another long-standing FCC initiative, the E-Rate Program, which has given many schools the funds to procure networking technologies that enable learning. The FCC received requests to expand the E-Rate program to support more advanced firewalls and other network security services that protect students and teachers using online learning technologies. The Cybersecurity Pilot Program was a direct response to these requests and the overwhelming need for cybersecurity resources.
While the initial proposal only considered advanced or next-generation firewalls for funding, the final version of the pilot program allows schools and libraries to use the grants to build a cybersecurity program tailored to their unique needs. Some categories of relevant tools align with federally recognized best practices; these include endpoint protection; identity protection and authentication; zero-trust architecture; and monitoring, detection and response capabilities.
TAKE ACTION: Apply for FCC cybersecurity pilot funding with these tips.
Implementing Best Cybersecurity Practices for Schools and Libraries
To protect school districts and libraries from cyberthreats, it is crucial to invest in cybersecurity tools and leverage available funding to build robust cybersecurity programs. If you can secure funding, it would be advantageous to invest in advanced security, including the following:
- Endpoint protection: Secure endpoints such as laptops, desktops and mobile devices that connect to the network. Advanced endpoint protection solutions provide real-time threat detection, blocking malicious activities and responding to threats before they can cause significant harm.
- Identity threat protection: As organizations undergo digital transformation to support remote work and learning, they adopt bring-your-own-device policies and rely more heavily on cloud services. Identity-centric approaches to security use a combination of real-time authentication traffic analysis and machine learning analytics to quickly identify and prevent identity-based attacks.
- Zero-trust architecture: This security framework assumes all users, devices and systems — both inside and outside the network — cannot be trusted by default. Due to fundamental problems with today’s widely used authentication architectures, organizations must incorporate security protections focused on identity and authentication. By eliminating transitive trust, zero-trust security concepts radically reduce or prevent lateral movement and privilege escalation during a compromise.
- Monitoring, detection and response capabilities: Identify and respond to threats in real time. These capabilities involve the continuous monitoring of network activities, detecting anomalies or suspicious behavior, and responding to mitigate identified threats. Entities that are unable to effectively run security programs internally should consider managed service providers, which can improve efficiency and enable organizations to apply internal IT or security resources toward domain-specific challenges.
- Regular cybersecurity training for employees and students: Raise awareness of common cyberattack tactics such as phishing and social engineering by providing users with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions. It is also important to regularly upgrade software and systems to protect against known vulnerabilities and ensure everything is configured securely.
While the education sector is vulnerable to threats, steps can be taken to protect school districts and libraries from further damage.
WATCH NOW: Unlock the secrets that protect one district’s student data.
Thankfully, the FCC’s pilot program has all the makings of a grade-A cybersecurity initiative: It addressed a pressing problem, it considered input from stakeholders to develop the framework, and it resulted in funding to help a sector that frequently faces cyberattacks. Other agencies would be well served to follow the rollout of this program closely and consider implementing similar pilot programs of their own.
