AI, Cyber Security and Your School 2026 Update
The compliance and regulations continue to increase and not everything that been accelerated by AI. Your employees are more vulnerable than ever to sophisticated attacks through social media and email phishing and scam attacks that can result in your computers and data becoming compromised, destroyed or held for ransom.
Over 80% of compromises come from either accidental or malicious actions by employees. An invitation link to a party, special sale or funny video from someone they think they can trust (spoofing and phishing attacks) can bring a company to it’s knees. The really scary part is that you may have already been hacked and you don’t know it. Data, keystrokes, passwords, student social security numbers bank account information and more might be harvested from your computers continuously and you have no idea it is happening.
When it is finally discovered, you may see your years of hard work and investment be crushed. As a school owner I understand the deep commitment you have to your students, staff and community as well as the financial liability that rests on your shoulders. No one starts a company with a budget for cyber security. It’s a need that has created over time as you continued to upgrade your systems to keep up with the increasing regulatory requirements of accreditation and licensing.
The current environment, with the addition of AI, has escalated the need to address this vulnerability. I have been in the computer field since 1978 and I’m astounded at the exponential growth of risk just in the past year. There is no reason to think it will change. Schools are a target rich environment for hackers. As one Chief Information Security Officer stated, “It’s not a question of if, it’s only a question of when, and for many people it has already happened and they just don’t know it yet.”
GLBA compliance is a good starting point that is mandated. Actually protecting your school and your investment requires even more attention. Secondary education is a great contribution. Really large schools can afford large IT teams to address these issues. Smaller schools are in a more difficult situation with limited resources. At GLBA, we want to help you increase your cyber security as affordably as we can.
If you are still only using paper, then you probably don’t need us. But if you are connected to the internet, you are vulnerable and we are here to support making your school as secure as possible.