K12 Tech Talk

Eric recounts the story of how his district was hit with ransomware in 2019 but narrowly escaped a major cyber attack. He describes the early days of the attack, including the response from his team and district, and then recounts how they recovered with only a very small grazing from the attack. His story is filled with lessons learned from the incident, including things they should have done before the attack as well as how his district handled the incident as a community.

Chris was not able to make this week’s episode so we’re also considering Eric for the full-time gig.

Visit our YouTube channel and subscribe. We plan to post video recordings soon.

https://www.youtube.com/@k12techtalk

Join the K12TechPro.com Community.

Buy our merch!!!

SomethingCool.com

Extreme Networks - Email [email protected]

Fortinet - Email [email protected]

NTP - Email [email protected]

VIZOR - vizor.cloud/k12techtalk

Oh, and...

Email us at [email protected]

Tweet us err X us @k12techtalkpod

Visit our LinkedIn page HERE

In the latest episode of the K12 Tech Talk Podcast, co-host Chris shares an update on his SIS implementation struggles, highlighting some mistakes along the way. In the news segment, they discuss a recent ransomware attack on 14 Pinal County school districts and the shift towards data exfiltration in cyber threats. The main topic revolves around the MORENET conference, where AI was a major focus. They delve into COSN and the Council of Great City Schools' readiness checklist on Generative AI, exploring how districts can translate it into actionable plans. The episode wraps up with an intriguing question about personal printers in classrooms. Advertisers for this episode include

Ransomware attack on 14 Pinal County school districts' payroll system

COSN and Council of Great City Schools' readiness checklist on Generative AI

Listen Here or on all major pod platforms

Join the K12TechPro.com Community.

Buy our merch!!!

SomethingCool.com

Extreme Networks - Email [email protected]

Fortinet - Email [email protected]

NTP - Email [email protected]

Oh, and...

Email us at [email protected]

Tweet us err X us @k12techtalkpod

Visit our LinkedIn page HERE

In this episode, Mark and Josh sit down with the Godfather of Student Data Privacy, Steve Smith. Steve tells us how student data privacy became "a thing" for his district 15 years ago due to questions from parents, and it morphed into a national organization. He offers tips and pointers on how to get started if your district has not jumped into the seemingly wild waters of SDPA's. Then, Chris and Josh have a discussion with Stuart from Jupiter about what they can do for you if you are looking to migrate your SIS.

Listen Here or on all major pod platforms

Join the K12TechPro.com Community.

Buy our merch!!!

SomethingCool.com

Extreme Networks - Email [email protected]

Fortinet - Email [email protected]

NTP - Email [email protected]

Jupiter - Email Stuart at [email protected]

Looking for a new SIS? Here is our general “demo” video:

Jupiter Demo

And learn more here:

Jupiter

Oh, and...

Email us at [email protected]

Tweet us err X us @k12techtalkpod

Visit our LinkedIn page HERE

In this special episode we pay tribute to Pate Hogan, a special friend of the K12 Tech Talk Podcast. Pate appeared on the podcast multiple times over the last few years and we wanted to share some of our favorite moments with Pate.

Thank you for the laughs and memories, Pate.

Chris starts the episode with a story about his bad day, talks for 10 minutes, then Mark realizes he didn't press the record button. For the remainder of the episode, Chris is mad at Mark and upset with the day he's had. He does attempt to tell the story again.

The guys discuss 3 listener emails and the following:

Google fixes fifth actively exploited Chrome zero-day of 2023

Cisco patches zero-day vulnerability under attack | TechTarget

Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024 with listeners migrated to YouTube Music | TechCrunch

Google is shutting down its Jamboard whiteboarding app - The Verge

Oops! Google Search caught publicly indexing users' conversations with Bard AI

6 Suggestions IT Teams Should Ask Teachers When Evaluating Unapproved Technology -- THE Journal

Listen Here or on all major pod platforms

Join the K12TechPro.com Community.

Buy our merch!!!

SomethingCool.com

Extreme Networks - Email [email protected]

Fortinet - Email [email protected]

NTP - Email [email protected]

Jupiter - Email Stuart at [email protected]

Looking for a new SIS? Here is our general “demo” video:

Jupiter Demo

And learn more here:

Jupiter

Oh, and...

Email us at [email protected]

Tweet us err X us @k12techtalkpod

Visit our LinkedIn page HERE

Mark, Josh, and Chris discuss two listener emails, Google's third party apps, Google's 10 year announcement on Chromebooks, and they talk at length about contracts, terms of service, and how to handle agreements.

Listen Here or on all major pod platforms

Join the K12TechPro.com Community.

Buy our merch!!!

SomethingCool.com

Extreme Networks - Email [email protected]

Fortinet - Email [email protected]

VIZOR - 20% off

Jupiter - Email Stuart at [email protected]

Looking for a new SIS? Here is our general “demo” video:

Jupiter Demo

And learn more here:

Jupiter

Oh, and...

Email us at [email protected]

Tweet us err X us @k12techtalkpod

Visit our LinkedIn page HERE

This is a special episode - We sat down with Alaina Clark, the Assistant Director of Stakeholder Engagement at CISA. We were very happy she agreed to come on and chat with us about all things CISA. She talked about what CISA can help your district accomplish related to your cyber posture, the White House event, and the newly announced Secure By Design Initiative for K12. We really appreciate the time she spent with us and we hope to have folks from CISA on again in the future.

Mark and I also quickly talk about the big announcement from Google extending AUE for Chromebooks out to 10 years of life. This is a huge step for device life and cutting down on e-waste.

We don't have any sponsor this week due to the special episode, but you know who they are, go visit them.

Every week we say this, but here we go again...

It's been a rough few days for Mark and Josh. Mark started school this week and is tired and worn. From power outages to heatwaves, Mark experienced it during his first day of school.

Josh had 3 days in a row with major SIS outages ranging from a half day to 20 minutes. This caused him to edit his incident response plan and work through plans for attendance and food service.

We also tease an upcoming interview with Alaina Clark, Assistant Director for Stakeholder Engagement for CISA. This interview should be released in the next few days. We are super thankful that Alaina and CISA agreed to this interview.

Listen Here or on all major pod platforms

Join the K12TechPro.com Community.

Buy our merch!!!

SomethingCool.com

Extreme Networks - Email [email protected]

Fortinet - Email [email protected]

Jupiter - Email Stuart at [email protected]

Looking for a new SIS? Here is our general “demo” video:

Jupiter Demo

And learn more here:

Jupiter

Oh, and...

Email us at [email protected]

Tweet us err X us @k12techtalkpod

Visit our LinkedIn page HERE

This is a wild one. We start out recapping our first two weeks of school, but quickly realize Josh is doing all the talking.  We talk about a few news stories of cyber incidents at school districts in Connecticut and Maryland. While talking about these incidents, Mark takes offense that Josh and Chris thought Maryland was considered a New England state.

The majority of this episode is spent on a topic we found on a Facebook group called "The Principals Desk." There was a post in that group recently talking about different ways to rollout a 1:1 deployment and the pro/cons of each. So, we decided to discuss those options from our viewpoints with upwards of 10 years of 1:1 history each of our districts.

Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms).

Join the K12TechPro.com Community.

Buy our merch!!!

SomethingCool.com

Extreme Networks - Email [email protected]

Fortinet - Email [email protected]

Jupiter - Email Stuart at [email protected]

Looking for a new SIS? Here is our general “demo” video:

Jupiter Demo

And learn more here:

Jupiter

Oh, and...

Email us at [email protected]

Tweet us err X us @k12techtalkpod

Visit our LinkedIn page HERE

It was past Josh's bed time when this episode was recorded, so he let's Mark do all the talking. Mark shows off his Google Sheet skills by walking us through the CIS controls, specifically IG1. IG1 was mentioned at the White House Convening on K12 Cybersecurity a few weeks ago and we thought it was a good idea to delve into what that means and how to get started with implementation. Mark also talks about the CIS Workbook to help you rate your current security posted against CIS Controls. After completing the Workbook, you are presented with a report that gives you starting points for your weakest ratings.

Here is a spreadsheet with IG1, IG2 and IG3. For the sake of this episode, we only focused on IG1.

Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms).

Join the K12TechPro.com Community.

Buy our merch!!!

SomethingCool.com

Extreme Networks - Email [email protected]

Fortinet - Email [email protected]

Jupiter - Email Stuart at [email protected]

Looking for a new SIS? Here is our general “demo” video:

Jupiter Demo

And learn more here:

Jupiter

Oh, and...

Email us at [email protected]

Tweet us err X us @k12techtalkpod

Visit our LinkedIn page HERE