(TNS) — Manhattan-Ogden USD 383 officials want to require cybersecurity training for all employees after a phishing incident last week fooled some employees into compromising information. thinking about.
Director of Technology Mike Ribble told the school board on Wednesday that the district's cybersecurity was compromised when multiple school employees clicked on a phishing email sent from an address that appeared to belong to a district employee. Ta.
As a result, no student information was lost, he said.
Less than 10% of people who received the email reported it as phishing, Ribble said.
“The number of staff who not only clicked on the link, but also leaked information, was in the double digits,” Ribble said. “But you only need one.”
Ribble said the incident coincidentally occurred while the school district was conducting an internal phishing test, which is a requirement for cybersecurity insurance.
Ribble emphasized the importance of cybersecurity training, citing K-State, which has mandated training since a cybersecurity incident in January. Cybersecurity training for staff began in January with $383 in funding, but many in the district have not completed it, Ribble said.
“As of last week when everything was going on, we still had 289 staff members who had not completed their work,” Ribble said. “It opened in January. It was scheduled to be completed by spring break. Over time, he had direct access to over 20 students' information.”
Mr. Ribble recommended that USD 383 should take similar steps as K-State and make cybersecurity training mandatory.
“The recommendations I am putting forward to Ministers and to you are nothing new,” Mr Ribble said. “We have to create cybersecurity and all these requirements. We have to make people understand that it's important because there's too much out there. We can We can build as many barriers as we want, but when our own internal people let go, the information breaks through the layers of what we have created.”
Ribble also suggested teaching cybersecurity to students and staff from grade 8 onwards so they can be better prepared. This includes teaching students how to change their passwords, providing multi-factor authentication to students, and providing cybersecurity training to students to avoid clicking on suspicious links.
“That's the part of the world they're trying to move into,” Ribble said. “They're going to go to college or K-State. That's what they want. We've got to show them we're ready.”
Superintendent Eric Reid said he wants to be tougher on cybersecurity and holding people accountable. This may include assigning additional training to employees who fail internal phishing tests.
“Sometimes we're so nice to things that we have to be mean,” Reid said. “If there's any time they haven't completed their work, we shut them down. And they don't have access to email or (Canvas). That's what I do.” I don't care. At this point we have to do this. ”
The school board plans to hold a technology work session in June to further discuss the issue.
“You hear the word 'balance,' and I like 'balance.' It's a word I use all the time,” Reed said, “but when you're talking about security, I don't want balance. I want something heavy-handed and down-to-earth. But I still want balance and an opportunity for the kids. Serve it and make it work.”
Board adds $28,000 to Lincoln Education Center renovations.
In other business, the school board also unanimously approved a contract modification order for the renovation of the Lincoln Education Center, formerly the east campus of Manhattan High School, increasing the cost of the project by $28,431.93.
The change order increases the guaranteed maximum price package with McCown Gordon to $9.5 million.
The additional funding will address additional modification needs identified by the city to bring the building into fire code compliance, including cleaning the attic, redoing electrical conduits and wiring, and reinstalling light fixtures on the first and second floors.
“As far as I know, this is one of the last things for the fire code,” Reed said. “Sometimes we find something right away, but other times we find it along the way or see what the final product is.
“What happened in this case was they found a part of the ceiling that was open and how some electrical wires were running through it and said, 'We've got to clean that. We can't leave it there.''We haven't covered that part.''
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