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New ISAC for Kâ12 Schools Names National Director
A new information sharing and analysis center (ISAC) set up to help American school districts protect themselves against cyber-threats has named its first national director.
Heading up the Kindergarten Through Twelfth Grade Security Information Exchange, or K12 SIX, is president of consulting firm EdTech Strategies and the K–12 Cybersecurity Resource Center, Douglas Levin.
Levin is the founder of the K–12 Cybersecurity Resource Center and creator of the K–12 Cyber Incident Map, a visualization of cybersecurity-related incidents reported about US K–12 public schools and districts from 2016 to the present.
“I’ve been tracking the growth in attacks in this sector since 2016,” said Levin. “We’ve seen a marked increase over time, and a real spike since COVID-19. I’m glad to be joining an action-oriented organization that is working to proactively protect schools.”
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., is among the senators to call for a review of how government can better support K-12 education in shoring up cybersecurity. New Hampshire is among the states to have districts targeted by ransomware attacks. (Photo by Toni Sandys-Pool/Getty Images)
Three Democratic senators requested a federal auditing group look into how the national government assists local school districts in fighting the scourge of ransomware.
In a letter dated December 16, Sens. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz, and Jackie Rosen, D-Nev., requested the Government Accountability Office look into efforts by Education, DHS, and other relevant federal agencies to assist school districts in securing themselves from cyber threats and the effectiveness of these efforts.
Roosevelt High School in Portland, Oregon. The Portland Public Schools district is among the first members of K12 SIX. (Visitor7, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
The automotive sector has its own Information Sharing & Analysis Center (ISAC). So do the aviation and maritime industries. They all represent forms of transportation, but no one would say they all face the exact same cyber threat scenarios.
So why have K-12 schools traditionally been lumped in with the public sector and higher education when it comes to ISAC activity? Local education districts have their own distinct challenges as they strive to protect themselves against digital threats. It only makes sense that they have an ISAC of their own.