After a major ransomware attack took down many of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s IT systems last week, multiple organizations have called on the Federal Communications Commission to immediately allow E-rate funding to be used toward safeguarding school and library networks.
The statement from the Consortium for School Networking; State E-rate Coordinators Alliance; State Educational Technology Directors Association; and Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition urgently called for more federal assistance to address growing K-12 cybersecurity concerns.
“The recent cyber-attack on the LA Unified School District, along with hundreds of similar attacks on schools, libraries, and other educational institutions over the past few years, highlights the urgent need for federal officials to take immediate action to protect our nation’s educational entities from cyber-attacks,” the statement said.
While the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center have previously warned about the education sector’s vulnerability to cyberattacks, the organizations said last week “the US government has not done enough to protect these networks from harm.” Currently, the federal E-rate program provides discounts on telecommunications and internet access to schools depending on their poverty level but does not include funding for cybersecurity.
Last week the FBI, CISA and MS-ISAC issued a joint statement alerting that a hacker group called Vice Society has disproportionately targeted the education sector with ransomware attacks since the summer of 2021.
Vice Society has reportedly claimed responsibility for the ransomware attack targeting LAUSD, according to TechCrunch. LAUSD has not confirmed this report.
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