K-12 cyber information exchange, incident catalog would be directed by CISA under new legislative proposal
A bill introduced to the Senate last week would provide new cybersecurity resources to K-12 schools, including an information exchange, an incident registry and a program aimed at providing schools with more cybersecurity tools and strategies.
In a press release Friday, Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia who co-sponsored the Enhancing K-12 Cybersecurity Act, said it would allow schools to focus on teaching, not “ransomware attacks or recovering from cyber incidents.” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, the other sponsor, said the legislation would provide schools the “necessary training resources and best practices for prevention.”
The bill, as with nearly identical legislation the two lawmakers introduced in 2023 (it failed), would provide a total of $20 million to fund the program for two years.
The Cybersecurity Information Exchange the legislation would create would connect federal, state and local governments, as well as nongovernmental organizations, to define best practices and disseminate them to schools. It would also maintain a database of tools funded by the federal government or recommended for purchase with state or local grant funding. The exchange would also be directed to create a database that schools could search to find new cybersecurity funding.
The Cybersecurity Incident Registry that would be created by the bill would combine the dates, descriptions and outcomes of K-12 cyberattacks, with the aim of spotting trends and developing “systematic approaches” to prevention and response, according to the bill’s text.
The bill’s School Cybersecurity Improvement Program, meanwhile, would make available services “that enhance the ability of K-12 schools to protect themselves from ransomware and other cybersecurity threats.”
Education is among the poorer-resourced and most-targeted sectors, and the new proposal is receiving support from educational groups familiar with the sometimes disruptive and expensive cyberattacks schools face. In a press release, Keith Krueger, the chief executive of the Consortium for School Networking, a nonprofit group for school technologists, called cybersecurity one of schools’ “most urgent technology challenges.” L. Earl Franks, executive director of the National Association of Elementary School Principals, said in the same press release that the legislation would help school leaders “protect student data and privacy and to avoid costly school disruptions.”
