Choosing the Right Digital Security Tools (S2,E8)

In this 2021 CoSN podcast episode, Noel Erskine, Technology Director, and Bryan Williams, Network Administrator, of Nebraska’s Norris School District discuss how districts choose and apply digital security tools. A written summary of the episode and a current section on school cybersecurity findings and funding follow the audio.

The CoSN PodcastChoosing the Right Digital Security Tools - S2E8November 10, 2021 · 40 min 38 sPlay episode: Choosing the Right Digital Security Tools - S2E8 (40 minutes 38 seconds)0:00-40:38Follow on SpotifyApple

Digital safety and cybersecurity are among the most critical responsibilities of school districts. Technology leaders nationwide are constantly evaluating new tools and best practices to develop an effective, reliable security plan that all stakeholders can follow.  In part one of this three-part series, we look at digital security tools. How do districts determine their needs, find tools that align with their strategy, and succeed with implementation of their plan?

Technology leaders from Nebraska’s Norris School District: Noel Erskine, Technology Director and Bryan Williams, Network Administrator. They discuss the key factors for evaluating a district’s digital security, how to find and implement effective tools, how to make use of grant funding for procurement, advice for other districts facing similar challenges, and more. 

This episode is part one of a mini-series supported by GoGuardian. Learn more at https://www.goguardian.com/ 

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Engage further in the discussion on Twitter, follow: @noelerskine @CoSN @GoGuardian @edCircuit

The CoSN Podcast is produced in partnership with edCircuit.

To learn more about CoSN, visit www.cosn.org.

District cybersecurity: what the episode covers and what has changed since

District cybersecurity is the subject of this episode in the CoSN podcast series, which edCircuit produces in partnership with CoSN. Part one of a three-part series published in 2021, it features two technology leaders from Nebraska’s Norris School District. Written below is a short account of the episode’s topics, followed by public information on the problem and on funding.

What the episode covers

According to the episode description, Noel Erskine, the district’s technology director, and Bryan Williams, its network administrator, discuss the key factors for evaluating a district’s digital security, how to find and put effective tools in place, and how to use grant funding for procurement. They also offer advice for other districts facing similar challenges. The episode asks how districts determine their needs, find tools that match their strategy, and carry out their plan successfully. Only the description was available for this summary, so it does not report what either speaker said on the recording. The series is supported by GoGuardian, a company that sells school technology products, as the episode description states, and listeners should keep that sponsorship in mind.

What federal reviews have found

The topics in the episode fit what public agencies have found. The U.S. Government Accountability Office, in a report published in October 2022, found that ransomware and other attacks have had significant effects on schools, with state and local officials reporting lost learning of three days to three weeks and recovery times of two to nine months. The office said the national scale of the problem is unknown. It also found that the Department of Education and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency had little interaction with the K-12 community on the subject and did not measure how effective their products and services were. The page lists the four recommendations it made as closed and implemented.

In January 2023 the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency published a report titled Protecting Our Future: Partnering to Safeguard K-12 Organizations from Cybersecurity Threats. The agency’s page describes it as covering the risks facing elementary and secondary schools and offering recommendations, with one-page guides on key findings and on the most impactful security measures. The page does not itemize the findings, so readers should open the report itself.

Funding for school cybersecurity

The episode raised grant funding as a way to pay for tools. In January 2025 the Federal Communications Commission announced the participants in a Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program. THE Journal reported that the pilot selected 707 participants, 645 of them schools and districts, along with 50 libraries and 12 consortia, from all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia and several Tribal lands. It provides up to $200 million over three years to help cover eligible cybersecurity services and equipment. A district that was not selected can ask the FCC and its state education agency about other programs.

Steps for a district leader

• Start with a list of what needs protecting: student records, financial systems, networks and devices, and who has access.
• Match each tool to a need on that list before comparing products, as the episode description suggests with its question about aligning tools with strategy.
• Ask a vendor how it measures effectiveness. The GAO found that even federal agencies had not done so for their own products.
• Plan for staff time. A tool that nobody has time to configure and monitor will not protect anyone, so budget for the hours of the people who will run it as well as the license.
• Share the plan with stakeholders. The episode description says the plan should be one that all stakeholders can follow, which means teachers, administrators and families need to know their parts in plain language.
• Write down an incident plan that includes how classes continue if systems are down for days, since the GAO reported lost learning of up to three weeks.

Readers can find a related discussion in edCircuit’s article on the top five cybersecurity threats facing school districts.

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