On March 28, 2024, the U.S. Department of Education—in coordination with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)—held the kickoff meeting of the Education Facilities Subsector Government Coordinating Council (GCC), designed to facilitate formal, ongoing collaboration between all levels of government and the education sector on issues of K-12 cybersecurity risk management. The launch of the GCC marks an inflection point for the K-12 education sector, bringing it on par with other critical infrastructure sectors and subsectors that have previously established such stakeholder councils.

K12 Security Information eXchange (K12 SIX) is pleased to welcome ThreatDown, powered by Malwarebytes, as a partner in its efforts to advance the cybersecurity of K-12 education institutions in the United States.

Malwarebytes, a global provider of real-time cyber protection, offers ThreatDown solutions that combine award-winning endpoint security, threat surface reduction and 24/7 managed services to support K-12 districts and schools defending against today’s modern threats. Purpose-built to be easy to use for K-12, ThreatDown solutions can take down cybersecurity threats, complexity, and costs.

K12 SIX has submitted comments in response to the FCC's NPRM on the "Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program." In our comments, K12 SIX makes three broad points about the proposed pilot program: (1) the proposed pilot program will be successful only to the degree it builds upon foundational K-12 cybersecurity risk management practices designed to address systemic weaknesses in the sector; (2) the goals of the proposed pilot program must recognize the unique context in which it will operate and support comprehensive long-term improvements in close consultation with ED and CISA; and (3) the proposed pilot program is likely too small and too slow to make a difference given the scope of challenges facing the K-12 sector. 

In observance of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the K12 Security Information eXchange (K12 SIX) is pleased to publicly release the 2023 – 2024 school year updates to its Essential Cybersecurity Protections series. Developed by K-12 IT practitioners, for K-12 IT practitioners—and aligned to cybersecurity risk management best practices—the K12 SIX Essential Cybersecurity Protections series establishes baseline cybersecurity standards for U.S. school districts and provides guidance and tools to support their implementation.

In collaboration with the K12 Security Information eXchange (K12 SIX), SETDA recently announced the release of a cybersecurity resource focused on small, rural, and under-resourced districts: “Small Districts, Big Hurdles: Cybersecurity Support for Small, Rural, and Under-resourced Districts.” The publication offers details on how state agencies and other support organizations are empowering their smallest districts to secure their data and networks.