All educational institutions are at risk of falling victim to a cyberattack, and in recent years, K-12 schools have been an increasingly frequent target. The adoption of advanced networking technologies by school districts, the presence of extensive personal and financial data stored on networks, and for some schools, a lack of dedicated cybersecurity resources, have led to heightened risks for cyber threats and attacks within the K-12 community. These incidents can significantly impact a school’s ability to carry out its educational obligations, protect sensitive student and staff information, and provide a safe and secure learning environment for our nation’s youth.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which occurs every October, is an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity, including for our nation’s education system. K-12 school and district administrators, educators, and staff can take a number of steps to stay safe online and defend against cyber threats. To support these efforts, the federal government has developed resources, guidance, tools, and trainings that the K-12 community can use to reduce cyber risk and better protect against an evolving threat environment.

Cybersecurity resources available through SchoolSafety.gov include:

• Cybersecurity Action Steps: This infographic outlines four simple steps all members of the K-12 school community can take to stay safe online.
  
• Cybersecurity Considerations for K-12 Schools and School Districts: This training course is designed to help K-12 schools and districts understand cybersecurity considerations needed to inform school emergency operations plans and safety, security, emergency management, and preparedness programs. School and district staff can also reference a fact sheet on this topic.
  
• K-12 Digital Infrastructure Brief: Defensible and Resilient: This brief highlights cybersecurity recommendations and promising practices from states and districts across the country. It is designed to help schools build solutions for their own contexts and offers examples from the field of those who faced pernicious challenges to connectivity, accessibility, cybersecurity, data privacy, and other infrastructure issues and designed solutions for their challenges.
  
• Partnering to Safeguard K-12 Organizations from Cybersecurity Threats: This report provides recommendations and resources to help K-12 schools and school districts address systemic cybersecurity risk. It also provides insight into the current threat landscape specific to the K-12 community and offers simple steps school leaders can take to strengthen their cybersecurity efforts.
  
• Protecting Sensitive and Personal Information from Ransomware-Caused Data Breaches: This fact sheet provides information for organizations to use in preventing and responding to ransomware-caused data breaches.
  
• #StopRansomware Guide: This guide serves as a one-stop resource to help organizations, including schools, reduce the risk of ransomware incidents through best practices to detect, prevent, respond, and recover, including step-by-step approaches to address potential attacks. School personnel, parents, educators, administrators, and students can also find a range of ransomware-related resources on StopRansomware.gov. 
  

Learn more about and reference these resources to find out how you can help make your K-12 community more cyber secure and resilient. You can also explore additional cybersecurity resources on SchoolSafety.gov.

For questions and additional information, please contact SchoolSafety@hq.dhs.gov.