Savvy K–12 district administrators and IT staffers know to plan for when, not if, a cyber incident occurs.

That planning involves having a comprehensive response strategy for mitigating the effects of ransomware or other malware. Experts also advise that, in the end, people are a key part of any cybersecurity approach. It’s important to develop a culture around cybersecurity.

With the frequency of cyberattacks targeting K–12 schools, there is also a growing number of IT professionals and administrators who can share lessons learned from having to mitigate a breach and communicate the situation to stakeholders. That’s true of Rockford Public Schools in Illinois, which suffered a ransomware attack in fall 2019 that quickly shut down dozens of the district’s virtual servers.

“This was nothing we wanted to experience, but there’s a silver lining,” says Jason Barthel, the district’s executive director of technology. “It’s helped us move forward very quickly with many technology initiatives laid out in our strategic plan.”

Rockford schools are implementing new security technology as well as other efforts, such as user security training, to help prevent future attacks.