Today it seems everything is connected to the internet in some way. At home, you have doorbells, garage doors, TVs, and a myriad of other things. School networks also have a long list of vendors and vendor devices sharing their network.

Today’s Tidbit should be quite simple once you get going. NIST requires data to be encrypted in transit and at rest. Probably you have a number of staff and techs who have laptops that leave the district.

Imagine you’ve been hit by a Cyber Attack. Your network is locked by ransomware and all your data is compromised. What now? Many people rely on their backups as a way to restore their data.

In August of 2021, CISA added “Single Factor Authentication” to its list of practices it considers “exceptionally risky” as it exposes you to an “unnecessary risk from threat actors”. As a result, you may start to see requests from multiple sources to implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) strategies.

I watch a lot of Cybersecurity presentations. Ransomware is on everyone’s lips as a major concern. Here are two interesting tidbits of information. Many Law Enforcement Agencies and CyberSecurity Analysts are now recommending that if you don’t pay the ransom, you keep your encrypted data and backups anyway.

Today’s Internet and network security environment is very different from what it was 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.

Have you ever been part of a group where a leader has not been clearly identified? It takes twice as long to get anything done and arguing and conflict are the order of the day. Cybersecurity in your district works the same way.

Everyone knows the adage “No one is perfect”. Unfortunately for anyone with a computer network, the bad actors who want to infiltrate your system are ready to take full advantage of any mistake they can find. Cyber security is a constant competition between software/code developers and bad actors.

Last week we talked about how one weak link can open the door to a Cyber Incident. We discussed the weak link of old, unused user IDs remaining in your network. Today we will discuss the potential weak link in Malware Protection.

Far too often we hear people say “I don’t need to worry about security tools and training, I have Cyber Insurance”. While this doesn’t apply to everyone, we did want to take the time this week to talk about why Cyber Insurance isn’t enough to give your district the protection it needs and deserves.