Wichita School Board to Allot $2M to Beef Up Cybersecurity Measures
The district’s superintendent asked the school board to approve the funding after hackers tried to get access to sensitive financial information.
Despite an unsuccessful hacking attempt, the district wants to bring in better hardware and software to make future attacks more difficult.
WICHITA, Kan. – The Wichita School Board superintendent has asked the school board to approve up to $2 million to increase its cybersecurity measures. The money is already in the budget, the district just needs approval to spend it, according to KWCH-TV.
“It’s really no different than our building security. We want to keep those plans private so that people can’t come in and attack us,” School Board Member Lynn Rogers told a KWCH-TV reporter.
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The request comes after hackers tried to get access to sensitive financial information in October 2015. The attempts proved unsuccessful, yet the district wants to bring in better hardware and software to make future attacks more difficult.
“It’s kind of that preparation to stay a step ahead of the hacking community,” said Rogers, who explained the software will protect student information as well as the financial systems, employee records and vendor information.
“We know the attacks are going to continue and so that’s what we’re trying to prepare for,” he said.
School board members will be deliberating the added cybersecurity expense as they look at other areas to cut money due to a looming budget deficit for the next school year.
Rogers says while it may look like this is money taken away from the classrooms, it’s not, adding it’s a cost of doing business in 2016.
“If you’ve got computers and you’re on the web and you’re online, you’re going to have to spend money to protect that,” he said.
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