On this episode of PrioritiesEDU, Jake sits down with Texas Tech University CIO Sam Segran to talk about technology strategy with an eye toward digital services.

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On the second episode of PrioritiesEDU, EdScoop sits down with University of Tulsa CIO Paige Francis.

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The introduction of Chromebooks in U.S. schools has been instrumental in giving more students access to the internet. But the huge shift to remote learning for students and teachers — and the sudden reliance on networks that typically lack the security protections in place at most schools — has created new security challenges for most K-12 school districts.

One of the key challenges school districts now face is assessing the risks introduced by unmanaged assets, according to cloud security expert Sunny Suneja.

“Educational institutions now have to take into account the increased attack surface because of unmanaged devices being used by user populations, connecting to school networks and platforms from untrusted sources and untrusted locations on the internet,” he says in a new EdScoop podcast. Sponsored by McAfee and Carahsoft.

Guest: Sunny Suneja, former senior cloud security architect, U.S. Public Sector at McAfee.

Host: Wyatt Kash, SVP, Content Strategy, Scoop News Group

Look for more coverage of “IT Modernization in Education” on www.edscoop.com/listen

While the move from perimeter-based defense to zero-trust security remains high on most CISO’s priority lists, it’s been arguably more of a challenge for colleges and universities, given the complexity of their operations, the constant turnover of users, and the relentless budget pressures they continue to face.

For Kent State University, deciding the best way forward came down to a decision — either take the “blue pill” or the “red pill,” recalls Bob Eckman, Kent State’s chief information security officer.

Eckman describes how he and his IT associates agreed to abandon their waterfall approach to security project development, in order to implement a zero-trust environment by capitalizing on an existing Microsoft enterprise platform. Sponsored by Microsoft.

Guest: Bob Eckman, Chief Information Security Officer, Kent State University

Corey Lee, Zero Trust Architect, Microsoft

Host: Wyatt Kash, SVP, Content Strategy, Scoop News Group

Look for more coverage of “IT Security in Higher Education” on www.edscoop.com/listen

On the first episode of PrioritiesEDU, EdScoop sits down with ASU's Lev Gonick and Cisco's Renee Patton to talk about technology alignment. This episode is brought to you by Cisco.

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Contact tracing is seen as essential to protecting students, faculty and staff from COVID-19 outbreaks as colleges and universities remain vigilant in keeping their campuses open.

Stephen Savas, vice president for Splunk’s government and education business in the western United States, says higher education leaders can use data to their advantage for contact tracing using technologies they likely have in place on campus.

He shares ways to harness data to support for contact tracing efforts on campus in a new podcast. Sponsored by Splunk.

Editor’s Note: Splunk advises that, “Any use of Splunk Interaction Analytics is likely to implicate certain state, local and federal privacy and/or data laws. Please consult any necessary professionals to ensure that your implementation is fully compliant with all applicable laws and regulations. Further, effective implementation of the tool is dependent upon significant participation by data sources and the consents provided by individuals.”

Guest: Stephen Savas, Vice President, Government and Education Business, Splunk

Host: Wyatt Kash, SVP, Content Strategy, Scoop News Group

Look for more coverage of “IT Modernization in Higher Education” on www.edscoop.com/listen

EDUCAUSE recently released its report on the top IT issues that education institutions will face in 2021, and it’s no surprise that the focus was on how schools will move forward with digital learning platforms both during and following the pandemic.

Among its conclusions, “the report says security threats aren't going to lessen. But with reduced budgets, institutions are going to have to prioritize their security spending even more carefully,” says Okta's Kelsey Nelson.

Nelson highlights some of the report’s findings and discusses how schools can enhance their technology strategies by capitalizing on identity and access management solutions which mitigate security risks and improve user experience. Sponsored by Okta.

Guest: Kelsey Nelson, Product Marketing Manager, Okta

Host: Wyatt Kash, SVP, Content Strategy, Scoop News Group

Look for more coverage of “IT Modernization in Higher Education” on www.edscoop.com/listen

As K-12 school districts continue to respond to the pandemic, school leaders need to invest in cloud technology for scalable and secure remote learning.

“Connectivity to the content was job one and has been a key focus and remains an issue,” says Palo Alto Network's Greg Herbold, on a new podcast. Right behind that is the second challenge, to focused on the quality and security of education platforms.

It is not just about putting what runs on-premise into the cloud, but optimizing those systems to operate on the cloud platform. Sponsored by Palo Alto Networks.

Guest: Greg Herbold, Palo Alto Networks’ director for state and local government and education

Host: Wyatt Kash, SVP, Content Strategy, Scoop News Group”

Look for more coverage of “IT Security in Education” on www.edscoop.com/listen

Education technology leaders should consider letting vendors take on day-to-day cybersecurity management to enable a focus on serving students and staff. With the shift to remote learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this would allow their IT staff to focus on long-term security strategies, share IT security experts from Verizon and Cisco Meraki.

We discuss security threats on the rise as students and faculty remain at least partially remote. Some organization are seeing success with managed services to deliver significant benefits, especially in the areas of IT infrastructure, cybersecurity management and connectivity. Sponsored by Verizon.

Guests:

Chris Novak, Director of Verizon’s Threat Research Advisory Center

Shane Hallen, Strategic Sales Manager for Service Providers, Cisco Meraki

Host: Wyatt Kash, SVP, Content Strategy, Scoop News Group

Look for more coverage of “IT Modernization in Higher Education” on www.edscoop.com/listen

When higher education leaders started to realize the pandemic wasn’t going away, they had to move quickly to fully support a remote learning or hybrid-learning environment.

Three main IT and security challenges came to the surface, says Hunter Ely.

First was the need to quickly support the needs of students and faculty to access campus resources from virtually anywhere. Second, were scaling issues associated with moving on-premises services to the cloud to support a larger remote community. And third, there was — and still is — the need for transformational IT strategies that could meet the budget realities colleges and universities now face.

“We've had many conversations in the last few months about the need to reduce overall security spend while increasing efficiency,” says Ely. In this podcast he discusses how colleges and universities can address their security and scaling needs concurrently and in a way that will help promote remote learning. Sponsored by Palo Alto Networks.

Guest: Hunter Ely, Security Strategist, Palo Alto Networks

Host: Wyatt Kash, SVP, Content Strategy, Scoop News Group

Look for more coverage of “IT Modernization in Higher Education” on www.edscoop.com/listen