Fortinet/Fortigate

Schools are responsible for protecting their students. Students must be protected from physical harm during school-related events and activities, as well as from the threat of criminal attacks on campus. In addition, students must be protected from cyber threats and vulnerabilities among school-owned devices, Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, and non-network personal mobile devices on the network. While physical and cybersecurity of K-12 schools have primarily been operated in silos, there is an increasing need to integrate the two to ensure complete campuswide protection.

Cutting-edge digital and eLearning resources are critical components for the modernized classroom. Yet, finding the resources to enhance education experiences for students amid already thin budgets is difficult. As a result, some K-12 school districts are turning to more affordable options such as Chromebooks that require more connected, high-speed infrastructures. To meet these demands, many schools are applying for E-rate funding that can be used for technologies such as access points and switches that help deliver secure Wi-Fi, and next-generation firewalls that help protect the entire network and devices. However, investment in any digital learning resource without considering cybersecurity leaves new devices and resources at risk. K-12 schools need digital experiences that do not overlook security or network performance needs.

As a result of digital innovations, many K-12 school districts are left grappling with how to protect the expanded attack surface. Often, they purchase and deploy an array of point solutions as new issues arise, unintentionally creating an expensive, unintegrated, and siloed security architecture in the process. This type of infrastructure creates numerous operational inefficiencies that lean security teams struggle to manage, making effective threat detection a complex burden.

K-12 schools must adhere to a number of specific regulations and compliance measures to ensure their students’ PII records remain secure, that their connected devices only access appropriate content on the internet, and that they remain protected from cyber threats. The array of threats students face often requires schools to demonstrate compliance with regulations such as the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).