Dive Brief:
- A five-day course at Jacksonville State University recently armed Alabama teachers with cybersecurity skills to protect themselves and their students from online threats.
- The Anniston Star reports the program was paid for with a $98,000 grant from the National Security Agency, which is interested in promoting cyber safety as well as inspiring the next generation of cyber security professionals.
- Teachers planned to take the hacking, coding and encryption skills they learned back to their classrooms, helping students learn how to protect their own devices and data by understanding how others might steal it.
Dive Insight:
K-12 education is increasingly seen as a target by hackers interested in personal data they can access relatively easily. Whether it is because districts are using outdated devices or they haven’t invested enough in security protocols, they are vulnerable. Schools often have loose networks being accessed by inexperienced users at a range of access points that are difficult to monitor completely.
Even if the right protections are in place, IT departments rely on users to do their part. Training courses like the one at Jacksonville State may be an ideal professional development opportunity for teachers, helping them become tech leaders in a district and pass along their newfound skills to students.
