SaTC: EDU: Advancing Cybersecurity and Privacy of Educational Technologies Used in K-12 schools

随着对数字学习的需求和需求的增长，针对K-12学校网络及其用户的网络安全攻击的数量和强度急剧上升。这些攻击——包括网络钓鱼、数据泄露、拒绝服务和勒索软件攻击——使学生和学校的个人和教育信息易受攻击，从而威胁到学生和学校的网络安全和隐私。这些日益增长的网络安全威胁凸显了对学校管理人员和员工进行网络安全教育的需求，以确保他们做好充分准备，决定使用哪种教育技术，以及如何优化其安全配置和功能。该项目将通过新颖的网络安全意识-询问-行动（AAA）计划，直接向北卡罗莱纳州的学校管理人员、技术支持人员和教师提供网络安全教育。这一专业发展计划将使学校教育工作者更深入地了解如何保护他们的教育技术，掌握沟通技巧，使他们能够向软件提供商询问与安全和隐私相关的问题，以及在认识到对学校数字隐私和安全的威胁时如何采取行动的关键信息。该项目有三个目标。首先，K-12学校人员将识别和分析用于收集、存储和访问不同学生和学校数据类型的教育技术应用程序。其次，项目团队将为学校管理人员、技术支持人员和教师设计和开发讲习班模块。最后，该团队将促进暑期网络安全AAA项目，与学校管理人员、技术支持人员和教师一起实施这些模块。预计结果将改善K-12学校系统的网络安全保护，并进一步保护他们的学生数据。评价结果将用于改进培训单元。教材将免费提供给全国其他学校系统使用。该项目由安全与可信网络空间（SaTC）计划支持，该计划资助解决网络安全和隐私问题的提案，在这种情况下，特别是网络安全教育。SaTC项目与《联邦网络安全研究与发展战略计划》和《国家隐私研究战略》保持一致，旨在保护和维护网络系统日益增长的社会和经济效益，同时确保安全和隐私。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As the need and demand for digital learning have grown, there has been a sharp rise in the number and intensity of cybersecurity attacks on K-12 school networks and their users. These attacks—including phishing, data disclosure, denial of service, and ransomware attacks—threaten students’ and schools’ cyber safety and privacy by making their personal and educational information vulnerable. These increasing cybersecurity threats highlight a need for cybersecurity education targeted to school administrators and staff to ensure they are adequately prepared to decide which educational technologies to use and how to optimize their security configurations and features. This project will provide cybersecurity education directly to school administrators, technology support staff, and teachers across North Carolina through the novel Cybersecurity Awareness-Ask-Action (AAA) program. This professional development program will equip school educators with a deeper awareness of how to secure their educational technologies, the communication skills to enable them to ask security- and privacy-related questions of software providers, and critical information on how to act when they recognize a threat to the digital privacy and security of their schools.The project has three goals. First, K-12 school personnel will identify and analyze educational technology applications for collection, storage, and access to different student and school data types. Second, the project team will design and develop workshop modules for school administrators, technology support staff, and teachers. Last, the team will facilitate a summer Cybersecurity AAA program to implement the modules with school administrators, technology support staff, and teachers. Outcomes are expected to improve the cybersecurity protection of K-12 school systems and further secure their student data. Evaluation results will be used to improve training modules. Materials will be made freely available for use by other school systems across the country. This project is supported by the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program, which funds proposals that address cybersecurity and privacy, and in this case specifically cybersecurity education. The SaTC program aligns with the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan and the National Privacy Research Strategy to protect and preserve the growing social and economic benefits of cyber systems while ensuring security and privacy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.