Given the growing importance of cybersecurity issues in education, it is critically important to shed light on high-quality academic studies so that school leaders and policymakers can be guided by rigorous analysis and evidence. For that reason, just over a year ago, the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center was pleased to offer insight into original research on cybersecurity issues affecting K-12 schools conducted by Dr. Travis Paakki (“K-12 Information Security Strategies: Research and Recommendations“).
This summer, Dr. Paakki presented on his research at the HOPE 2020 Conference in the following session:
The Privacy of 100+ Million Children, Families, and Young Adults Is Unprotected
School districts throughout the United States suffer from notoriously poor information security. This is at a time when school district spending on technology is at an all-time high. Why is this? The public assumption that K through 12 information security has kept pace with the rest of society is wrong. This talk will review doctoral research that found that understaffed and underfunded districts are either ignorant of the risks or simply choose to accept them, and there is no penalty for either. School leaders should be bound by the same expectations to secure their assets as leaders in other government agencies, and their leaders should be responsible for ensuring that students enter the world with a clean slate.
The archived video of that session (presentation and Q&A) is now available and is well-worth your time:
Should you be aware of other independent, high-quality academic research on an aspect of K-12 cybersecurity, please reach out and let us know! We will gladly assist in its dissemination.