Whether you are a sports enthusiast, a volunteer, or part of a work team, you have experienced first-hand the importance of good teamwork. We have all experienced what happens when a team works together, and when a team does not. When all team members know the goal and how they contribute to achieving it a team will be successful. On the other hand, when a goal is undefined and/or team members aren’t working towards that goal, bad things happen. At worst it is chaos, and at best it is a sub-optimal result.
When it comes to keeping schools safe from Cyber Crime the same holds true. You succeed together or fail together. All it takes to experience real problems is one employee believing the spoofed email asking them to deposit their paycheck into another account. Or another employee clicking on an attachment sent from a bad actor that provides them access to your system. Or Facilities unknowingly allowing a vendor to have full access to your network to install a new program. Effective cybersecurity takes time and energy and is most effective when everyone knows why they are being asked to make the effort to stay secure.
The question is – does your team know the goal they are working towards to keep your district safe from Cyber Crime? Do they know what part they play in achieving this goal?
The idea of Teamwork in combatting Cyber Crime is so important the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) made it one of the key points in their second bulletin to K-12 school leaders (released in August). This bulletin identified each of the key players and the part they play in achieving success. Here is an excerpt from what CISA had to say about the key players:
Whose Job is It?
Building and maintaining safe, accessible, resilient, and effective digital infrastructure is a whole-of-community challenge requiring whole-of-community solutions. While every person has a role to play, the following groups play key roles:
- District Leaders
- District Technology Leaders
- Educators
- Students and Families
- State Leaders
In the coming weeks, we will explore what the CISA bulletin has to say in more detail including many of the steps you can take to keep your district safe from Cyber Attacks, and what role everyone can play in achieving that goal.
This week’s suggestion:
Ask yourself if you have defined the Cyber Security goal for your district and if all key players know the goal and how they can contribute to success.
If you would like more information on where you can access both complete CISA 2023 bulletins or would like to discuss in greater detail how CSI can help with this, contact Lisa MacDougall at (lmacdougall@csiny.com) or 845.897.9480.