SACRAMENTO – Several local area school districts will be part of a new national pilot program to provide enhanced cybersecurity tools and awareness of potential threats.
School districts in Earlimart, Porterville, Parlier, Fresno and Delano are among 64 state-wide participants in the pilot program that is being offered through the Federal Communications Commission. A total of 707 school districts nationally were selected to participate.
“Making sure our students have access to all the opportunities of the digital world has been a cornerstone of my time at the Commission. It is also vitally important that this access is cybersecure,” said former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “This issue touches every state in every region of our country, including on Tribal lands, and that range of experience is reflected in the participants announced today.
“Through this program, we will be able to provide our federal, state and local government partners with actionable data about the most effective and coordinated way to address the growing cyber needs of schools and libraries.”
The program is intended to operate for three years and will offer participating schools, libraries and other selected organizations with defrayed costs for new equipment. The participants will provide data to the federal government relating to cybersecurity to guide and advise policymakers on how to address current threats as well as the best practices for preventing future cyberattacks that can compromise significant personal data held by schools and other organizations.
The pilot program has an initial budget of $200 million in universal service funds that were previously reserved but unused. The funds will go toward advancing efforts to protect sensitive information and to uncover vulnerabilities in security measures of schools and libraries.
“The ongoing proliferation of innovative digital learning technologies, and the need to connect students, school staff and library patrons to information, jobs, and life-long learning have led to a steady rise in the demand for bandwidth in schools and libraries,” the press release reads. “However, the shift to modern connectivity has brought with it increased cybersecurity threats and attacks, particularly for K-12 schools and libraries.
“To address this challenge, the Cybersecurity Pilot Program will allow the FCC to collect data and evaluate the effectiveness of using universal service funds for cybersecurity services and equipment to protect school and library broadband networks and data.”
Schools were selected after the FCC analyzed applications for the program and identified districts that were predominantly underserved and had a high percentage of low-income students. Identifying threats to these institutions was an initial focus of the pilot program.
“Consistent with the Commission’s goals, the selected participants represent a diverse set of large and small, and urban and rural schools, libraries and consortia from various geographic areas with differing cybersecurity experiences and needs, with a particular focus on low-income and Tribal applicants,” the statement reads.
