Security Check-Up

Georgia To Provide Cybersecurity Check-Up Platform to All School Districts in State

• By Kristal Kuykendall
• 01/12/22

The Georgia Department of Education is giving every school district in the state a tool to analyze their infrastructure security and any needed improvements.

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.

“With the escalation in cybersecurity breaches around the world – many of them in the education setting – it is essential that our school districts have the tools to keep student information safe,” Georgia State Schools Superintendent Richard Woods said. “This platform will help safeguard student data throughout the state, without adding a cost burden at the school level.”

The cybersecurity platform will give districts the ability to view their technology infrastructure assets from an external perspective, exposing any vulnerabilities and providing recommendations for remediation in the process. It will also generate an industry-standard cybersecurity scorecard for each school district's technology ecosystem, GaDOE said, giving districts a detailed guide on where and how their infrastructure security needs to improve.

“Technology plays an essential role in our schools,” GaDOE Chief Information Officer Keith Osburn said. “Ensuring our educational technology leaders have the tools necessary to identify and then defend against would-be threats to each district's infrastructure that houses student data is mission-critical.”

For more information, visit the GaDOE website.