How Are You Keeping Your Domain Safe From Threats Since the K12 Cybersecurity Act of 2021?
On October 8th, 2021, US President Joe Biden signed the K-12 Cybersecurity Act into law, which enabled the CISA, in collaboration with the FBI, to study cybersecurity risks within secondary schools. As a result of the findings, these agencies have produced a toolkit of resources to keep digital infrastructures and SIS safe from cyber threats, but many districts have yet to take actionable steps to enhance the security of their Google Workspace for Education environments.
With more vulnerabilities than ever before, it has become even more important to protect the private information, sensitive data, and daily activity of our administrators, teachers, and students. By now, K-12 schools should have reassessed their existing security measures and ensured the implementation of:
Ready-for-Anything Devices: In the last few years, schools have expanded access to technology with 1:1 models, device carts, and computer labs. Subsequently, in 2020 alone, there were 1,740 institutions that experienced ransomware attacks as cybercriminals sought to take advantage of this influx. With devices like Chromebooks, users have built-in security features that keep files safe from without having to install additional antivirus software.
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A Monitoring System and Mitigation Process: Schools can more effectively prevent unauthorized access to information and data when they have solutions that monitor user activity, scan for potential threats, alert technical staff, and remedy attacks. Google Workspace for Education Plus offers the Security Dashboard to gain security analytics on file exposure, authentication, encryption, email delivery, and targeted spam and malware classifications. It also provides the Investigation Tool to identify privacy and security issues, so schools can respond by deleting malicious emails from inboxes, cleaning up accounts that shouldn’t be active, or changing user permissions to files.
→ Discover the Top 5 Cybersecurity Strategies K12 Schools Need
Domain-Wide Technical Support: As education technology continues to evolve, security measures must adapt along with them which is why schools often spend an estimated 20% of their cybersecurity budgets on protecting cloud applications. CDW Education’s support services can help schools avoid security breaches with preventative solutions like Support Stacks, and address them after they occur with on-demand support, customized solutions, and professional collaboration for errors, misalignments, degradations, and more through Amplified Support for Google for Education.
→ Explore Our Available Support Stacks
For questions about cybersecurity or to learn more about all the solutions we can offer to outfit your Google Workspace for Education domain for detection, prevention, and mitigation, connect with a Google Customer Success Specialist.