Though the Federal Communications Commission only recently approved the Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program on June 6, it’s not too early to start preparing to apply for a share of the $200 million total available through the three-year cybersecurity pilot, an FCC official said.
The FCC expects that the application window for the pilot program will open this fall, said Kristin Berkland, an attorney advisor with the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau and the Telecommunications Access Policy Division, during a Wednesday webinar held by Funds For Learning, a firm that helps schools and libraries navigate E-rate funding.
Selected districts in the pilot program will be eligible to receive up to $13.60 per student to cover the costs of one type of cybersecurity measure. The funds may be used to secure networks under four categories: advanced or next-generation firewalls; endpoint protection; identity protection and authentication; and monitoring, detection and response.
The pilot program will be funded through the FCC’s Universal Service Fund and will be independent from the commission’s E-rate program, a federal program that helps schools and libraries pay for broadband access. Applicants are not required to have gone through the E-rate program to be eligible for the pilot funds.
What to expect
The FCC aims to award funds to a combination of large, small, urban and rural schools and libraries, with a particular focus on low-income and tribal applicants, Berkland said.
To apply for these funds, schools and libraries will need to fill out the FCC Form 484 application. Among information applicants must provide is a general description about their cybersecurity practices and a proposal for using the pilot program dollars, Berkland said.
Within the FCC’s newly released Report and Order about the pilot, applicants can find more details about the information they must submit, she added. Under Appendix B, districts and libraries can learn more about products and services eligible for purchase through the program before filling out the application.
Once the FCC selects the pilot program participants, the commission will issue a public notice announcing the awardees. The participants will then have to submit a more detailed report about their cybersecurity and how they will use the pilot funds.
Berkland said that the FCC is only asking applicants to initially provide a general level of information about their cybersecurity standing to avoid overreporting sensitive details about their networks.
If approved, pilot participants will have to complete a competitive bidding process for their equipment and services. After that, participants can submit their reimbursement requests.
How to prepare
Berkland advises schools and libraries to sign up for updates from the FCC’s Universal Service Administrative Company, which administers the Universal Service Fund.
While waiting for the application window to open this fall, eligible participants should make sure they have a FCC registration number, a billed entity number and a user profile with the E-rate Productivity Center.
They should also double-check that they do not have any outstanding balances with the FCC, and that they are not on the U.S. Treasury’s “do not pay” list. Finally, applicants should be registered with SAM.gov in order to receive funds.
In beginning to evaluate their cybersecurity needs, Berkland advises that applicants should think about the cybersecurity risks the pilot funds would prevent or address, their goals and objectives, identifying their cybersecurity officer, and the services or equipment they want to purchase.
While the FCC’s cybersecurity pilot program is an exciting opportunity, the success of the program will depend on how well it is implemented, said Reg Leichty, founder and partner at Foresight Law + Policy, PLLC.
While $200 million is a lot of money, Leichty said it’s just a “drop in the bucket” when considering the needs of most schools and libraries nationwide.
Ideally, if the FCC is able to collect data from the submitted applications this fall and can monitor the program, it can be used to modernize the E-rate program and scale some of the cybersecurity supports, he said.
It’s also crucial that districts apply for this program to demonstrate how much help they need to secure their networks, said Funds For Learning CEO John Harrington. “The more they [FCC] see that the demand is there, the need is there for this, the more likely we are to have a future program that can really support the needs of applicants.”
