Almost 17 million students had no access to the internet in their homes at the start of the pandemic, while many more were impeded by unreliable internet connectivity and slow speeds. This divide wasn’t only restricted to rural locations; it was mirrored in towns and cities too.
Cyberinsurance premiums are expected to skyrocket this year as insurers crack down on the amount of risk they’ll accept — and they’re starting to require organizations requesting a quote to prove that their network security is in tip-top shape, industry experts said.
WatchGuard Technologies, a global network security and intelligence provider, said in a new Internet Security Report released today that endpoint malware and ransomware attacks during the first three quarters of 2021 totaled more than in all of 2020.
Georgia’s Board of Education recently approved the state superintendent’s recommendation to contract with the Georgia Technology Authority to provide licensing for a nationally recognized cybersecurity platform to each school district. The department will spend $970,000 in federal funds for the licenses; school districts will not be responsible for any of the cost, according to a GaDOE news release.
Earlier this year, a school district in North Carolina refreshed its wireless network, to support devices with Wi-Fi 6 capacity — before they began appearing in classrooms. Burke County Public Schools distributed 1,500 new access points to its 27 schools, using equipment from Cambium Networks (previously Xirrus).
The Texas county that houses Houston will be rolling out a private LTE network using Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum. The major beneficiary for the initial phase will be families with students that lack high-speed internet access. The project is being funded with CARES Act money.
Data security firm WatchGuard Technologies has launched four new mid-range models in its Firebox line of unified threat management appliances.
Nonprofit Internet2 has been working with state and regional agencies to help accelerate the spread of eduroam into K–12 schools, libraries and museums, resulting in the launch of eduroam Support Organizations.
Schools need smarter and more agile networks to respond to the demands of a digital learning environment that is still in the throes of major changes. For many schools, this means the displacement of legacy WAN (wide area network) architectures with SD-WAN (software-defined wide area networks).
New York district overhauls school-to-home communications efforts with a unified, data-rich communication platform to improve disconnected communications with families.