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New $200 million FCC proposal could help schools combat cyber attack onslaught
As ransomware and other cyber attacks become an increasingly potent threat to schools nationwide, a proposal by Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel seeks to create the first federal funding stream to help districts fight back. A three-year pilot program announced by Rosenworcel earlier this month could invest up to $200 million to enhance cybersecurity...
By Mark Keierleber | August 3, 2023
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The education community braced for guidance on student discipline. It never came
During a heated Senate confirmation hearing in July 2021, civil rights attorney Catherine Lhamon made clear her goal to confront longstanding, dramatic racial disparities in school discipline at a moment when racial inequities — in policing, education and society more broadly — were at the center of the national discourse. She’d done it before, to fanfare...
By Mark Keierleber | April 20, 2023
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Q&A: Shannon Watts on the power moms wield to stop school shootings
It was the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that brought Shannon Watts to action. From her Indiana home, the former communications executive and stay-at-home mother of five created a Facebook group for women who supported heightened gun laws. What began as a modest community on the social media platform quickly grew into the political...
By Mark Keierleber | April 13, 2023
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Trove of L.A. students’ mental health records posted to dark web after cyber hack
Update: After this story published, the Los Angeles school district acknowledged in a statement that “approximately 2,000” student psychological evaluations — including those of 60 current students — had been uploaded to the dark web. Detailed and highly sensitive mental health records of hundreds — and likely thousands — of former Los Angeles students were...
By Mark Keierleber | February 22, 2023
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They lost their kids at Sandy Hook 10 years ago. Their fight is for life
This article was published in partnership with The Trace. Sign up for its newsletters here. With an infectious smile, 7-year-old Daniel Barden’s slow, steady drumbeat held together the fledgling family band. The quartet’s intimate performance had brought life to the Best Western hotel in Monticello, New York, where the Bardens gathered to celebrate a joyous milestone:...
By Mark Keierleber | December 14, 2022
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Police experts: Swatting hoax targeting schools ‘absolutely’ coordinated, but may still be kids
After the police in more than a dozen South Carolina communities fielded calls last week alerting them to active school shootings, officers rushed to campuses where students and educators hid in fear for their lives. Ever since the mass school shooting in May at a Uvalde, Texas elementary school, families nationwide have been on high...
By Mark Keierleber | October 14, 2022
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LAUSD downplays student harm after cyber gang posts sensitive data online
Updated, Oct. 4 The Vice Society ransomware gang reportedly published over the weekend a trove of sensitive student records from the Los Angeles school district. The data was posted to the gang’s dark-web “leak site,” after education leaders refused to pay — and at first even acknowledge — a ransom. Yet in a press conference...
By Mark Keierleber | October 3, 2022
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Trevor Project to Refund Donation From Student Surveillance Company Accused of LGBTQ Bias Following 74 Investigation
The Trevor Project, a leading group combatting LGBTQ youth suicide, took money from Gaggle, whose online monitoring tool zeroes in on queer students.
By Mark Keierleber | September 30, 2022
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LA schools and the mystery of the missing ransom note
As the shady ransomware gang Vice Society took credit for a hack that sent Los Angeles school officials scrambling last week, cybersecurity experts noticed something peculiar. Vice Society, an “intrusion, exfiltration and extortion” group that experts believe is based in Russia, has become notorious for waging cyber warfare against K-12 schools, leveraging the theft of...
By Mark Keierleber | September 14, 2022
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Survey reveals extent that cops surveil students online — in school and at home
When Baltimore students sign into their school-issued laptops, the police log on, too. Since the pandemic began, Baltimore City Public Schools officials have tracked students’ online lives with GoGuardian, a digital surveillance tool that promises to identify youth at risk of harming themselves or others. When GoGuardian flags students, their online activities are shared automatically with school...
By Mark Keierleber | August 29, 2022