Cyberattacks are on the rise. Is the public sector prepared?

What can the public sector do to minimize the risks? Delaware County Intermediate Unit has some ideas

Khalid Ayyubov, chief information and technology officer for the Delaware County Intermediate Unit (DCIU), said investment is the key.

“We carry the responsibility of protecting the data of our students and data of our staff.

Therefore, that has to be part of a mindset of school leadership, when they make decisions on figuring out the budgets and figuring out additional funding to invest into proper protections,” Ayyubov said.

Cyberattacks can be financially damaging, legally challenging and devastating to school districts and their students, he said.

Ayyubov said local governments and education institutions should, at the very least, engage with an expert to receive a cybersecurity audit.

“Just like when you fix a car, right? You have to figure out what’s broken first before you fix it,” he said.

DCIU, a regional educational service agency, wants to set a standard in cyber protections.

“About two years back, we started developing cybersecurity programs to help school districts and other local government entities,” he said. “And one unique piece about our services is that they are very high quality and they are, compared to the competition, very low cost.”

The agency has simultaneously developed working relationships with major cybersecurity firms to work on cost-effective pricing models tailored to the area’s school districts, he said.

“On top of that, we developed additional services like a cybersecurity audit service, where our team of professionals would go into a district and perform a complete assessment of the district’s cybersecurity,” Ayyubov said.

He urged school district’s to evaluate their own needs and take advantage of DCIU’s network penetration testing, which is basically a simulated hacking attack.