CISA sheds light on K-12 cybersecurity in review

U.S. K-12 school districts have been urged by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to prioritize cybersecurity risk management amid the elevated prevalence of significant staffing and resource difficulties in securing IT systems, StateScoop reports. CISA recommended that school district administrators, superintendents, and leaders adopt multi-factor authentication and regular operating system and application updates, as well as join the K12 Security Information Exchange and Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, although the report did note that such options could still present a burden to K-12 schools. "An overwhelming majority of stakeholders across the educator and administrator communities reported that they had too many responsibilities and not enough time or resources to fulfill them," said the report. CISA was praised by K12 SIX Executive Director Doug Levin for making school administrators responsible for strengthening school system cybersecurity. Such a report was also hailed by Senate Homeland Security Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., as "an important step" in bolstering K-12 schools' cyber defenses.