Gov. John Bel Edwards last month declared a state of emergency after three Louisiana school districts were hit by cyberattacks.
The declaration made state resources—including cybersecurity experts from the Louisiana National Guard, state police and other agencies—available to school systems in Sabine, Morehouse and Ouachita parishes, according to a memo from the governor’s office.
The emergency situation that led Edwards to make the declaration, however, is repeating itself in school districts across the country, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Dozens of schools have disclosed data breaches and other cybersecurity incidents in the past months, including one in Nevada that affected 8,500 students across 18 schools.
Cyberattacks on schools aren’t a new phenomenon, but they are causing more damage now than in years past, which has prompted more state governments to get involved the way Edwards did.
Louisiana was prepared to respond to the incidents in part because in 2017 it established a statewide Cybersecurity Commission, which brings together professionals from the public sector, private sector, academia and law enforcement, according to Leroy Terrelonge, a cyber risk analyst at Moody’s Investors Service. Twenty-three other states, including New York, Texas and California, have created similar commissions since 2011, he said.
Lawmakers are also doing more to help schools deal with cybersecurity incidents. In Texas, a state law as of Sept. 1 requires school districts to adopt cybersecurity policies, designate a coordinator and report certain incidents to state regulators. Last year, Missouri lawmakers passed a bill that requires schools to tell parents or legal guardians if their student’s personal information has been stolen. Read the full story.
