Moving Forward on Cyber
August 08, 2023
Earlier today, AASA was pleased to participate in the White House summit on K12 cyber security. The event was a kick off for a series of federal support and action for K12 schools. The event featured Dr. Jill Biden, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas in hosting school administrators, educators and private sector companies in the timely and important discussion. The event included announcements of action and resources to strengthen cybersecurity for K12 schools:
- At last month’s AASA advocacy conference, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced the third led of her Learn without Limits initiative, and will be proposing a 3-year, $200 million pilot to strengthen cyber defenses in K-12 schools and libraries in tandem with other federal agencies that have deep expertise in cybersecurity;
- USED will establish a Government Coordinating Council to coordinate activities, policy, and communications between, and amongst, federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial education leaders to strengthen the cyber defenses and resilience of K-12 school (AASA has been in contact with USED about the GCC already);
- USED and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released K-12 Digital Infrastructure Brief: Defensible & Resilient, the second in a series of guidance documents to assist educational leaders in building and sustaining core digital infrastructure for learning. Additional briefs released by the U.S. Department of Education include Adequate and Future-Proof and Privacy-Enhancing, Interoperable and Useful;
- CISA will provide tailored assessments, facilitate exercises, and deliver cyber training for 300 K12 entities over the 2023-24 school year; and
- The FBI and National Guard Bureau will release resource guides to ensure state government and educational officials know how to report cyber incidents.
You can read the official White House summary here.
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