K-12 Cybersecurity Spending, Insurance on the Rise | #hacking | #cybersecurity | #infosec | #comptia | #pentest | #ransomware | #hacking | #aihp

Government Technology reports:

While school districts have a heightened awareness of cyber attacks and are increasingly improving their defense systems, most indicate that they still need dedicated personnel to better protect their data in addition to stronger collaboration from staff, according to an annual survey by the school software company Clever.

Clever’s 27-page report, released this week and assessing “the intersection of people, partnerships and technology” regarding K-12 cybersecurity for 2024, was based on survey findings from more than 800 K-12 administrators across the U.S. who were interviewed between October and December 2023.

Read more at GovTech.  One of the findings of particular note concerns vendor selection. Given how many big vendor/third-party breaches we have seen in the education sector, consider the responses to a question, “In light of increasing cybersecurity risks, how likely is your district to
change vendor selection requirements in the next year?”  Only 10% of respondents indicated that they were “very likely” to change requirements, while 45% were “somewhat likely” and the remaining 45% were either “not too likely” (37%) or “very unlikely” (8%).

But the responses to the question, “Which of the following vendor cybersecurity practices does your district evaluate or require (select all that apply)?” were somewhat chilling.  Is it any wonder some vendors feel that they can get away with not deploying appropriate security when there is no loss of clients because no one is checking on them?