On Thursday, February 14th, HJI's Cyber Practice Leader, David Kruse, will be speaking at the 2019 National Conference on Education in Los Angeles. Along with one of the nation's leading voices in K-12 cyber security, Ryan Cloutier (CISSP, Principal Security Architect at Sourcewell Technology), he will be sharing insights that will enable schools to prepare for a network security incident and to weather the costs of responding to one.
Independent school districts are a prime target for cyber criminals. Tight budgets often mean that there's not enough tools, time, or talent to stop cyber attacks; trends towards more devices, more data, and more internet access, mean that the number of potential targets is growing by the day; and the high cost of responding to an incident can often throw a wrench into a district’s general fund.
But districts don't need to be caught flat-footed. By implementing proactive security processes that include employee awareness training and a documented and repeatable set of security controls, districts can prevent many of the the most common types of attacks including ransomware and social engineering fraud before they’re allowed to take a bite out of the time & resources better spent on student achievement.
As some high profile cyber breaches have shown us, though, even organizations with robust cyber security controls can still fall victim to an attack. When that happens, districts face substantial response costs. Rather than having to collect from the general fund to pay these costs, districts that have strong cyber insurance can rely on their policy to provide a framework for their incident response effort and to pay for the costs necessary to implement that response. But since all cyber insurance policies are not created equal, David will share the most critical coverage terms that districts should look for their policies to include (and the ones that they should avoid!).
If you’re attending the conference, be sure to stop by room 505 at 10:15am on Thursday, February 14th to take part in what’s sure to be an engaging discussion. The full conference program is available on the event website.
And, if you’re a school district interested in learning more or applying for cyber insurance coverage, visit the page for the Sourcewell Cyber Insurance Program (powered by the Minnesota Service Cooperatives).
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