Dive Brief:
- Cybersecurity remains the biggest concern among district ed tech leaders, with nearly all 981 survey respondents to an annual survey from the Consortium for School Networking reporting that they are working to improve protections.
- CoSN found other indicators that schools are beginning to bolster their cyberdefense, including a sizable increase in districts using two-factor authentication — 72% in 2024 compared with 40% in 2022. Some 53% of districts also reported having incident response plans versus 34% two years ago.
- Even so, ed tech leaders seem to view their risk from cyberthreats as "relatively (and surprisingly) low," CoSN found. Despite K-12 being the most-targeted sector for phishing scams, for example, only 26% of leaders saw their districts as being at high risk from them, the report said.
Dive Insight:
Districts’ ongoing concerns over K-12 cybersecurity aren’t unfounded, as 30% of ed tech leaders responding to the CoSN survey in January and February said their district had fallen victim to a cyberattack. These led to learning disruptions for 9% of respondents, a network disruption for 17% and an administrative disruption for 11%.
Just 10% said they had experienced a cyberattack with no disruption.
Cybersecurity incidents are also driving up costs for districts’ cyber insurance, according to CoSN. Some 59% of districts reported paying higher premium costs, and 24% said their policies’ deductibles had risen.
At the same time districts are ramping up their own network protections, federal efforts are also increasing to support K-12 cybersecurity. In April, the U.S. Department of Education and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency announced the launch of a Government Coordinating Council for the Education Facilities Subsector. The council aims to help coordinate federal, state, tribal and local efforts to improve schools’ cyberdefense.
Other findings in this year’s CoSN report touched on school districts’ use policies on generative artificial intelligence. Just over half of districts said they do not have an AI use policy, while almost a third report that they define permissible use of the technology in their current policies.
But concerns are emerging among ed tech leaders over the prevalence of AI, especially when it comes to cybersecurity. CoSN found 63% of districts said they are extremely or very concerned about cyberattacks as AI is increasingly used in cybercrimes. Other top AI-related fears among ed tech leaders include the technology’s ability to create new forms of cyberbullying (47%), spread misinformation (45%), and threaten student data privacy (45%).
Bright spots for using the technology remain, however, as 43% of respondents said AI could have a potential positive impact for productivity, and 30% said it could possibly help with personalizing education.
Other research has found teachers are still slowgoing to introduce AI into their classrooms. As of fall 2023, just 18% of teachers said they used AI during the school day, according to a survey by Rand Corp. and the Center on Reinventing Public Education.
