Resources

We are thrilled to extend our invitation to you for an exclusive Cocktail Party hosted by Acture Solutions! This will be a fantastic opportunity to network with your peers, enjoy some delicious cocktails, and discuss the latest innovations in K-12 technology with the Acture team.

There has never been a more important time for a comprehensive cybersecurity implementation plan. Consider this: On average, US schools lose $500K daily to downtime from ransomware attacks, and cybercrime generally keeps rising. With these more prevalent cyber threats, protecting your organization’s sensitive data and IT infrastructure is essential.

It seems like Cyber Attacks are happening everywhere these days. Whether it’s a national news report of an attack against a company that has your credit card information or local news reporting a school district like yours that’s been hit with a ransomware/data breach, these stories are plentiful.

LAPS is a powerful security tool built into Windows that you can use to secure local administrator accounts on your organization’s workstations and mitigate “pass-the-hash” attacks. In this hands-on webinar, Austin will talk about the theory behind LAPS and demonstrate live how to set it up from start to finish.

“School’s out for summer.” -Alice Cooper, 1972 School’s out for the summer. By the time you read this, I hope my son graduated and is on his way to the US Navy. Extreme “senioritis” set in starting in January, so it has been a challenge to get him to the finish line.

I spent the day today at the soccer field for the championship games of the local town soccer season. My daughter’s team came in third place, winning its first and last games. It is interesting to watch little kid “beehive soccer.

Today’s Internet and network security environment differs greatly from just a few short years ago. As we’ve discussed, legacy tools, basic firewalls, and basic anti-virus/malware are no longer sufficient to keep your network safe. Many districts have implemented next-generation firewalls.

I have a confession to make. My wife is mad at me. She insists that I have been negligent about cleaning out the hallway closet. It is small, stuffed, and a mess. She is correct. However, cleaning closets is annoying and tedious, and I always have more important things to do.

“I wanna be a lifeguard. I want to guard your life…” -Blotto 1979 Three of my kids are certified lifeguards. Two have the elite Ellis Lifeguard certification that places like Disney and Great Wolf Lodge require, and the third has the standard Red Cross Lifeguard certification.

School’s out for the summer. My son graduated high school. The 4th of July is our country’s 247th birthday. It is time to make some noise! Besides the fireworks on the 4th, we must focus on configuring our networks to force attackers to be as noisy as possible.

Every year, we hear about the Chinese New Year, the animal featured that year, and its significance. With the start of the new school year, I would like to declare the 2024-2025 school year “The Year of Visibility.

I read an article today in which a judge declared that Google monopolized search. Well, that is a big duh! How long did it take the government to figure that out? Today, I will not debate the merits of Google’s status. I have a far more serious security concern to discuss.

We are excited to partner with NYSCATE to bring you this important upcoming webinar! New York State K-12 school districts must comply with EdLaw 2-d, which is challenging due to limited staff and resources.

Cyber risk is growing every day. CSI wants to get you the information you need to know. We invite you to spend a day learning about the cybersecurity threats and data privacy challenges facing schools today and how they could impact your district. With breakfast and lunch provided, it’s also a great way to network […]

Great News!! The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced the opening of the Cybersecurity Pilot Program application window for K-12 schools and libraries.

Exploring the Benefits of Digitalization Digital transformation is no longer an option. It’s a necessity for school districts aiming to thrive in the modern landscape. Yet many districts find themselves grappling with the complexities of digital transformation.

I stare at the Paladin Sentinel Monitoring Console every morning and see what happened with our monitored servers and networks overnight. I see many patterns and similar events happening between your networks. Here is one of my pet peeves of what I often see with a free suggestion to help keep me calm in my […]

At 5:30 am one morning, I was awoken by the sound of fire trucks. My neighbor’s house diagonally behind my house was on fire. The fire department promptly arrived within 15 minutes of the 911 call. Sadly, my neighbor died in the fire.

A few years ago, there was a very public cyber insurance denial case. As I understand it, the business contracted with Travelers for cyber insurance. They filled out their questionnaire and stated that they had multi-factor authentication (MFA) everywhere.

It is Tuesday at 12:29 a.m., at the end of Labor Day weekend. I am driving back from Westchester County Airport, having just flown in from Charlotte, NC. A message comes through. It is our friends at the Blackpoint Cyber SOC. One of our client’s legitimate users detected initiated a first-time VPN connection to M365 […]

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” -Albert Einstein “You live in a world of illusion Where everything’s peaches and cream. We all face a scarlet conclusion, But we spend our time in a dream.” -Jungle Love, Steve Miller Band Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to network security.

I remember those days when the Apple folks would scoff at having to have antivirus. Macs were superior, and Windows devices had all those problems. The technical folks knew that was marketing blather vs. sound security advice. The reality has always been that “everything can be hacked.

Today’s cyber landscape feels a lot like this picture. Anyone who uses a device connected to the internet is under threat. You never know when that arrow with your name will find you. Do you have the armor you need to give you the best chance of survival when the arrow finds you? Medieval warriors […]

You arrive at work tomorrow and are greeted by the news that a cyber-attack has compromised your district’s network, and the network is unavailable. What is the first thing you do? What is the second? When confronted by such alarming news, most people would be overwhelmed and unsure of the next steps.

I read the other day that today is “Worldwide Backup Awareness Day.” I have no idea who declares these days. I am guessing you already know you should have good backups and air-gapped backups. However, I am taking the liberty of morphing this into more sophisticated forms of backups.

Here is my “Top 5” list to up your cybersecurity defenses: Make sure that whatever your current endpoint protection strategy is, it is 100% in place. There are always better tools. However, repeatedly, the attackers are exploiting gaps in your cyber defenses.

CSI is growing again.  We are looking for high-quality individuals to work with our service delivery team. For more information on the positions available, please click here.      

There is a new, growing attack surface that is becoming increasingly dangerous to your network operations—the cloud, specifically your Google Apps or Microsoft 365 cloud instances. I have read commentary that M365 is believed to have the greater attack surface.

Welcome back! This summer flew by, and my summer vacation seems like a distant memory. In my 44 years of helping schools open for the new school year, this one was different. Several districts suspended all major work the last week of August. This was a summer of busy projects.

A year ago, my very short wife sat in a restaurant during March Madness on a bar stool that was too tall for her. The result was that while getting down off the stool, she blew out a disk in her back and was in tremendous pain. We went to a local ortho walk-in clinic.

You already know that “all” in security protection is vitally important. You need all your endpoints and servers protected with something. Hopefully, that something is EDR, MDR, and XDR products like CSI’s CSEDR powered by SentinelOne, CSMDR powered by Blackpoint plus SentinelOne, or CSI’s Managed XDR service powered by BlueShift Cybersecurity.

We live in interesting times and continue to face unique challenges to keep your school district safe and stable so teachers can teach, students can learn, and the staff behind the scenes can do all the important tasks that make the district function well.

You have probably heard of the AT&T breach by now. Reports describe it as the largest breach in history with serious national security consequences. AT&T has reported that threat actors stole all client call and text records for six months. I have not read anything indicating that the threat actors know the contents of any […]

“Trust but verify.” -President Ronald Reagan, December 8th, 1987, at the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty Signing I watched a presentation the other day by the head of Threat Operations for a major Security Operations Center (SOC) that provides 24/7 security oversight over networks like yours.

It has been a rough two weeks for many of us who support technology for our school districts. We have experienced the worldwide meltdown of CrowdStrike due to a faulty update.

During the Pandemic, Threat Actors had a field day using phishing and SEO poisoning to attack users. We are in the same climate again with the horrible events of the last few days. Threat actors who practice phishing attacks are already using this event to send bombastic emails with salacious titles mentioning the event, knowing […]

Gabe, Lisa, and I attended the annual CyberSecurity Summit at my Alma Mater, Marist College. Back in the day, at the beginning of the IBM/Marist Joint Study, I was asked to be on the board of that program. My 20-year-old self had a lot of fun hanging out with the CEO of IBM and discussing […]

CISA in their January and August 2023 Bulletins again called out some of the most important ways that schools can protect themselves from cyber attacks. In both reports, CISA suggested that schools start their Cybersecurity journey by implementing six of the Highest-priority security measures.

Please join us on Wednesday, March 8th, as Scott Quimby delivers a special update addressing the current K-12 cybersecurity challenges, NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) alignment as it relates to Ed Law 2-d, and NEW actions to improve your district’s security posture, help you with documentation, and measure your technology teams productivity.

It seems like Cyber Attacks are happening everywhere these days. Whether it’s a national news report of an attack against a company that has your credit card information or local news reporting a school district like yours that’s been hit with a ransomware/data breach, these stories are plentiful.

Join Cisco and CSI for a very special upcoming webinar. We will be joined by several specialists from Cisco (including Cisco Talos) who will discuss the dangers of spyware, deep links, content manipulation, malware, and keyloggers, and how to protect your school district from these threats.

New York State K-12 school districts must follow EdLaw 2-d. We all know that is easier said than done. It is hard work with limited staff and limited resources to properly protect student and staff personally identifiable data while protecting the integrity of the district’s network and making sure there are proper controls to protect […]