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Dive briefs:
- Ransomware attacks impacted over 2.6 million students between 2018 and 2021. according to the analysis The U.S. Government Accountability Office announced Monday. The number of affected students peaked at about 1.2 million in 2020, before dropping to 647,000 students in 2021, he said in a GAO report.
- In addition to providing cybersecurity-related products and services to schools, the report notes that the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Offices are committed to cybersecurity “for other agencies and the K-12 community. We have little or no interaction with school.
- To improve interagency coordination on K-12 cybersecurity, the GAO asked U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to establish a Cybersecurity Council coordinated among federal leaders and schools, to It recommends working with stakeholders to “consider identified opportunities to address cyber threats, as appropriate.” Additionally, the education sector should gather feedback and develop metrics to assess the effectiveness of cybersecurity products available to schools, the report said.
Dive Insight:
The GAO says there is still no formal channel between federal agencies and schools to address cybersecurity risks and incidents.
The lack of federal support and coordination with schools on cybersecurity is partly due to the Department of Education not creating a council to facilitate ongoing communication between schools and federal agencies, it said. I found the report.
federal guidance in National Infrastructure Protection Planestablish the responsibilities necessary to protect critical infrastructure, Includes education subsectorThe plan expects the Department of Education to manage the subsector, GAO said. CISA and the Department of Education should also coordinate K-12 cybersecurity efforts with federal and nonfederal partners, the agency said.
The GAO report was released shortly after nearly 500 gigabytes of data was stolen from the Los Angeles Unified School District. massive ransomware attackThis has resulted in personal and potentially damaging information being posted on the dark web about students and staff in the second largest school system in the United States.
From the district point of view, Recommended by experts Schools and their IT leaders will scrutinize new district technology and create their own security teams.
Experts suggest that collaborating between education and IT leaders to teach cybersecurity to students should be another focus. In one such effort, his one school district in Ohio, Lakota Local Schools, cyber security program For high school students. Launched four years ago, the course also gives students the skills to improve their online safety. This also includes a cybersecurity certification that will help you get a job in the field.
Cyberattacks on schools can have both academic and financial impacts, GAO said, noting that recovery times range from two to nine months.
Learning losses after a cyberattack can range from three days to three weeks for school districts, the agency said. Cyberattacks also create costs as school districts recover. Overall, GAO said the exact nationwide impact of these cyberattacks on schools is still unknown.
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