Most people know that cyberattacks are a significant threat, impacting daily the financial, operational, and reputation states of companies of all sizes and industries. What many don’t know is that the education sector is one of the most targeted and harmed industries. The education sector experienced a 44% spike in cyberattacks from 2021 to 2022 — a trend that has continued to today. Cyberattacks aimed at educational institutions represent 6.2% of all cyberattacks, equating to approximately one attack every two hours. There are several reasons for this: Educational institutions generally have ..read more

Breaks are necessary. Not just for students to perform at their best academically, but for their wellbeing. Today, student mental health concerns are high. Unhealthy social media usage, friendships, home environments, and more, all contribute to the increasing rates of depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric concerns present in 1 in 7 adolescents. At-risk students can greatly benefit from summer break, provided that they’re equipped with a strong plan, resources, and some know-how. On the contrary, for some students, summer break has the potential to exacerbate existing mental health concer ..read more

Recently, we hosted Ross Randall, the Director of Technology at Lamar County School District in Georgia, and Tim Miles, the Director of Technology at Steamboat Springs School District in Colorado, for a summer-inspired live webinar on fortifying your district’s multilayered cybersecurity strategy. From beach balls to firewalls, Ross and Tim generously shared their practical insights, guiding other K-12 tech professionals through the complex layers of cybersecurity. They discussed assessing the current infrastructure and developing an effective incident response plan. You can watch the full we ..read more

 Recently, we hosted Ross Randall, Director of Technology at Lamar County School District in Georgia, and Tim Miles, Director of Technology at Steamboat Springs School District in Colorado, for a summer-inspired live webinar focused on fortifying your district’s multilayered cybersecurity strategy. From beach balls to firewalls, Ross and Tim generously shared their practical insights, guiding other K-12 tech professionals through the complex layers of cybersecurity. They discussed assessing current infrastructure and developing an effective incident response plan. You can watch the full webin ..read more

It’s not easy being a young person these days. School, friendships, social media — they’re all piling on pressure, and they all seem to intertwine. After a while, sometimes it helps just to take a break. This, in a nutshell, is what mental health days for students are all about. Not familiar with the concept? Read on for everything you need to know about mental health days and how you can promote emotional wellness across your school district. What are student mental health days? According to the Child Mind Institute, a mental health day is time off from school to rest and recharge. A health d ..read more

This article was originally published in The Learning Counsel on 04.29.24 by Charlie Sander, CEO at ManagedMethods. Many schools around the country are faced with the issues of outdated systems and a lack of expertise in crucial areas, leaving them vulnerable to cyber-attacks. This is doubly the case in rural areas where resources can be limited. Additionally, poor Internet connectivity can hinder the implementation of cybersecurity infrastructure to protect staff and students’ personal data. Statistics and recent incidents paint this picture very clearly. In August last year, in a survey of e ..read more

Information technology has done wonders for K-12, but it’s also ramped up cyber risk exponentially. According to Microsoft, cyber threats impact education more than any other industry, totaling 80% of all malware encounters in the past 30 days. To put that into perspective, retail is the next most impacted industry. Yet, it only accounts for 9% of all incidents worldwide. Suffice to say, hackers are targeting schools at an unrelenting rate, and it’s only a matter of time before they come for your district. But don’t worry, there’s plenty you can do to protect your sensitive data — the only que ..read more

Last week, we hosted Ross Randall, Director of Technology at Lamar County School District in Georgia, and Tim Miles, Director of Technology at Steamboat Springs School District in Colorado, for a summer-inspired live webinar focused on fortifying your district’s multilayered cybersecurity strategy. From beach balls to firewalls, Ross and Tim generously shared their practical insights, guiding other K-12 tech professionals through the complex layers of cybersecurity. They discussed assessing current infrastructure and developing an effective incident response plan. Cloud Monitor is the only t ..read more

This article was originally published in Hackernoon on 05.29.24 by Charlie Sander, CEO at ManagedMethods. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks have plagued schools for quite some time. We often hear about ransomware attacks or other security breaches in the news, but DDoS attacks can be just as troubling for a school. DDoS attacks are cyberattacks in which a server is overloaded with unsolicited requests until it becomes unstable and an outage occurs. Verizon’s recent 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, schools experienced a whopping 1780 incidents in 2023, with a whopping 86% of t ..read more

Cybersecurity for schools takes K-12’s unique cybersecurity & safety challenges and threats into account to create a safety learning environment From higher education to elementary, schools have a lot of responsibilities. Not only must they mold the hearts and minds of their students, but they also have to provide a safe learning environment. That’s a tall order in today’s climate. School districts are contending with unprecedented cyber threats on an increasingly frequent basis. Simultaneously, a mental health crisis is raising the stakes for student safety, challenging schools to interve ..read more