K-12 Cybersecurity Insider | 11/3/2025 edition
A biweekly newsletter providing curated cybersecurity news to the K-12 community, as a public service of K12 SIX. Sign up for the K12 SIX mailing list to have future editions delivered to your inbox.
Mark Your Calendar
11/13 - Monthly Cross-Sector Threat Briefing (member-only)
11/18 - From ABC to PhD: Building K-12 Cyber Defense from Kindergarten to Staff Room (sponsored by Infosec Institute)
11/19 - K12 SIX Monthly Membership Meeting (member-only)
In the News
Cyberattack Fallout: Lawsuit Targets South Carolina School District
A former employee and parent of students attending the Lexington-Richland School District Five (SC) has retained a California-based data-privacy law firm to file a class-action lawsuit against the district, alleging the district failed to protect sensitive student and employee data during a June 2025 ransomware attack that compromised the personal information of thousands of individuals. Investigators determined that the breach exposed personally identifiable information – including names, birthdates, employee and student records, Social Security numbers and internal financial files – impacting more than 31,000 students, parents, alumni and staff. Add this to growing list of cybersecurity-related legal cases being brought by employees, parents, and students against K-12 school systems around the country - for better and worse.
ND School System Writes Off $840,000 Loss from 2024 Phishing Scam
Despite a still ongoing investigation, the Grand Forks Public Schools officially recorded the missing funds as a loss when books were closed in June. On Sept. 13, 2024, the district first disclosed it lost $2.2 million in what was later revealed to be a phishing scam. Five months later, the school board was informed that authorities were able to recover $1,296,935 of the stolen funds. That coupled with a $100,000 payout from their insurance company reduced the total loss to $842,730. Reflecting on the incident, a district official remarked: “It’s not a matter of if it happens, it's a matter of when. You can't write off and say ‘those are the types of problems that are for big organizations.’ I think it's only a matter of time – we all are targeted individuals alike. And I think that the greatest single safeguard, in so many ways, is to slow down, be thoughtful, be very careful.”
No, AI Does Not Power 80% of Ransomware
The security community is debating new claims from MIT Sloan researchers and Safe Security this week, after a jointly authored paper asserted that 80 percent of ransomware attacks are AI-driven. The MIT paper isn’t an isolated case of fictional narratives about artificial intelligence, though. Similar claims are appearing across the security industry, often tied to surveys or marketing campaigns rather than incident data. For a more evidence-based look at AI use by threat actors, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) may be the best current source. Here’s to more facts and less FUD in cybersecurity marketing.
4th Annual National K-12 Cybersecurity Leadership Conference (Feb 2026)
Hosted by the K12 Security Information eXchange (K12 SIX), the 2026 National K-12 Cybersecurity Leadership Conference is a unique event designed to identify and share solutions and best practices to better defend the K-12 education sector from emerging cybersecurity threats, such as ransomware and data breaches. The fourth annual conference will be held February 24-26, 2026 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Named a “top K-12 conference to attend in 2026” by K-12 Dive.
Members Get More
The K12 Security Information eXchange (K12 SIX) operates as the independent, non-profit information sharing and analysis center (ISAC) exclusively for the K-12 education sector. Founded in 2020, organizations eligible for membership include school districts, charter schools and charter management organizations, private/independent schools, regional education agencies, and state education agencies. K12 SIX members get more.