Louisiana Emergency Shows Compromised Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities in Schools Are On the Rise
Boston, Massachusetts, August 9, 2019 – As the nation’s cities and public education institutions embrace digital innovation, significant vulnerabilities have been rising to the surface and increasingly placing large amounts of our students’ personal data at risk. In fact, the Governor of Louisiana recently issued a statewide emergency declaration in response to a cybersecurity event that breached the school systems of three parishes in the northern part of the state. It threatened other public and private entities in the state as well.
The governor requested help from cybersecurity experts, from the National Guard, the State Police, the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, and the Office of Technology Services. It’s the first time in the history of the state that emergency support has been activated specifically for cybersecurity.
Initially, the school systems of Sabine, Morehouse, and Ouachita parishes were compromised. Superintendent Sara Ebarb announced through a Facebook post that the school system had been “hit with an electronic virus,” disabling “some of our technology systems and our central office phone system.”
Other school systems also appear to have been struck. When Tangipahoa Parish school officials uncovered a potential cybersecurity issue on the network, including their email and phone lines, all schools went offline. They did this as a precautionary measure.
“The reality is our public institutions (especially school districts) are under attack, and the volume of attacks isn’t dropping. It’s increasing significantly. We are here to help ensure the welfare and integrity of our public school systems data and internet security,” said Paul Martini, CEO and Co-founder of iboss.
Richard Quinones, iboss Senior Vice President, served as Assistant Superintendent of IT for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, the nation’s largest regional education center. After hearing about the Louisiana incident, Quinones stated, “I know firsthand how inadequately prepared the U.S. public education system is to address the risks of today’s cyberattacks. Due to budget constraints and a lack of staff resources, many districts fall prey to seemingly promising solutions, but they are unable to provide a level of security beyond standard content filtering. That’s why I joined iboss – to change that dynamic.”
iboss is the only cybersecurity solution serving the U.S. public education community that holds industry security certifications. This allows the company to provision security to the most highly regulated verticals including banking and finance. Utilizing a uniquely patented containerized cloud infrastructure and offering unparalleled protection for customers’ data in the cloud, iboss is the only cybersecurity solution architected to provision security to any and all mobile devices.
Three of the largest school districts in Texas adopted that very same technology, which further positioned iboss as the K-12 industry leader. Built as an enterprise cloud platform, iboss is thriving across K-12 education, as districts large and small are recognizing the need for “true” security beyond DNS and perimeter-based solutions.
As a result of Louisiana’s recent state of emergency, iboss is stepping up to assist school districts in the area and is ready to meet with state officials to offer expert advice and counsel.
iboss believes school districts deserve the very best protection, and that means an enterprise-quality cybersecurity platform to secure user Internet access on any device, from any location, in the cloud.
About iboss
iboss is a cloud security company that provides organizations and their employees secure access to the Internet on any device, from any location, in the cloud. This eliminates the need for traditional security appliances, which are ineffective at protecting a cloud-first and mobile world. Leveraging a purpose-built cloud architecture backed by over 100 patents and more than 100 points of presence globally, iboss protects more than 4,000 organizations worldwide. To learn more, visit www.iboss.com.
