K12 Tech Talk

This is a bit of a special episode. We are in New Hampshire for the NHCTO Clinic, so we prerecorded a few interviews. The first interview you will hear is with Andrew and George from Lakota Local School District. George is a student in high school and is completing their Cyber Academy program and gaining Industry Recognized Certificates (Including Security+ and CEH pro). This has opened doors for George and he is currently working as a cybersecurity professional for a company in his area while going to school. It's a really cool program and has given us a few ideas. The second interview you will hear is a chat with a number of representatives from Absolute. They go into detail about what their product can offer schools. Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms). Join the K12TechPro.com Community. Buy our merch!!! Absolute - Email oschmidt@absolute.com Absolute - Ensuring your Students’ Safety Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com SomethingCool.com - X360 Cloud Solution for backing up Google Workspace Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com NTP Oh, and... Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com Tweet us @k12techtalkpod

Mark is worked up this week, but first... Chris asks us how to keep printers from getting to bad websites, we talk about the big PaperCut vulnerability announced last week, we compare Chris' personality and mannerisms to Ted Lasso, we talk about the new pending Federal Legislation to enhance K12 Cyber Security, and Mark talks about Domain Doppelgänger from KnowBe4. The majority of this episode is spent talking about a "study" that was published last week about how Chromebooks are evil. The study talks about how schools have spent money buying millions of Chromebooks but those Chromebooks can't be repaired, have a "death date," and creating huge amounts of e-waste. This article got Mark worked up and he walks us through debunking each and every claim in this article and, in the process, we have a few good laughs. K12 Cyber Legislation - https://thejournal.com/articles/2023/04/20/federal-legislation-would-create-k12-cybersecurity-improvement-program.aspx PIRG "study" - https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/chromebook-churn-report-highlights-problems-of-short-lived-laptops-in-schools/ Papercut CVE - https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/exploit-released-for-papercut-flaw-abused-to-hijack-servers-patch-now/ Domain Doppelgänger - https://www.knowbe4.com/domain-doppelganger Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms). Join the K12TechPro.com Community. Buy our merch!!! Absolute - Email oschmidt@absolute.com Strengthening Security and Compliance Posture through Cyber Resilience in Education Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com SomethingCool.com - X360 Cloud Solution for backing up Google Workspace Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com NTP Oh, and... Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com Tweet us @k12techtalkpod

In this episode, Josh is really confused about the artist known as SZA and CISA, Mark reads a listener email, Chris talks about the tabletop exercise he did with his district administration team, and the guys banter about Missouri's proposed Senate Bill 4 that could affect website access. Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms). Join the K12TechPro.com Community. Buy our merch!!! Absolute - Email oschmidt@absolute.com Strengthening Security and Compliance Posture through Cyber Resilience in Education Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com SomethingCool.com - X360 Cloud Solution for backing up Google Workspace Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com NTP Oh, and... Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com Tweet us @k12techtalkpod Visit our LinkedIn page HERE Reddit NH CTO Clinic    

We have a number of listener emails that we address tonight. One is about shutting down SIS during off hours in an effort to protect it from attacks, one is about the Chrome net-export exploit, and the final one is about our retrospective on the COVID Years. We talk about CISA's new tabletop exercise template and how it would be fun to treat like it D&D: School Edition. We also talk about Black Hills Information Security's "Backdoors & Breaches" card game. We also talk about how "testing season" has changed over the last 5-7 years; from when devices were shared and testing was staggered to now when you can test an entire building in a few days. Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms). Join the K12TechPro.com Community. Buy our merch!!! Absolute - Email oschmidt@absolute.com Absolute Ransomware Response Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com SomethingCool.com - X360 Cloud Solution for backing up Google Workspace Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com Provision Data Solutions Oh, and... Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com Tweet us @k12techtalkpod Visit our LinkedIn page HERE Reddit NH CTO Clinic  

In this episode, the guys talk about key things to keep in mind when working with vendors to get Student Data Privacy Agreements signed. They also talk about the Clever outage on 4/6/2023. Josh also talks Chris into changing a Google Admin WiFi setting while riding in the car. Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms). Join the K12TechPro.com Community. Buy our merch!!! Absolute - Email oschmidt@absolute.com Absolute Audit Support Video Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com SomethingCool.com - X360 Cloud Solution for backing up Google Workspace Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com Provision Data Solutions Oh, and... Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com Tweet us @k12techtalkpod Visit our LinkedIn page HERE Reddit

Chris is back after a suspension and traveling to the CoSN conference. He recaps some of the discussion and overall trending topics from the CoSN conference. He also discusses the fact that he did not appreciate Eric the Intern's love for walking everywhere in Austin (and other Eric antics). Josh talks about the 3CX phone system vulnerability that was published 3/29/2023 by CrowdStrike and Red Canary. Hint - If you have a 3CX phone system, you will want to look this issue up and mitigate it right away. Of course, ChatGPT makes it's way into conversation this week again too. Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms). Join the K12TechPro.com Community. Buy our merch!!! Absolute - Email oschmidt@absolute.com Absolute Education Solutions Brief Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com SomethingCool.com - X360 Cloud Solution for backing up Google Workspace Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com Provision Data Solutions Oh, and... Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com Tweet us @k12techtalkpod Visit our LinkedIn page HERE Reddit

On this special episode (brought to you by ClassLink), Chris and Eric the Intern take a trip to Austin and spend the week at the CoSN conference! Because they interviewed so many and got such good content, we’ll be breaking this into two parts. You’ll hear from:   -Eric Nicklas, Program Manager, MOREnet -Don Ringelestein, CTO, Maine Township High School District 207, CoSN Board -Evangelina Mendoza, CTO, San Antonio Independent School District, CoSN Board -Tim Clark & Monica Watts, 1EdTech -Melody Lam, Learning Tools Developer, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools -Dayna Aravich & Dan Stoneman, Gartner -Shahryar Khazei, retired CIO of Los Angeles Unified, CoSN Board -Tom Ryan, Co-Founder at K-12 Strategic Technology Advisory Group, former CIO of Albuquerque Public Schools, and member of the Council of Great City Schools -Jan Mills, Senior Vice President of Sales, ClassLink -Steve Langford, CIO, Beaverton School District, Retiring CoSN Chair -Marlo Gaddis, CTO, Wake County Public School System -Keith Krueger, CEO, CoSN   ClassLink - Cybersecurity Rubric for Schools https://www.classlink.com/news/groundbreaking-new-cybersecurity-rubric-guides-schools-toward-improved-security-practices   ClassLink – DataGuard https://www.classlink.com/news/classlink-announces-dataguard-and-advanced-iam-tools

On this special episode (brought to you by ClassLink), Chris and Eric the Intern take a trip to Austin and spend the week at the CoSN conference! Because they interviewed so many and got such good content, we’ll be breaking this into two parts. You’ll hear from:   -Eric Nicklas, Program Manager, MOREnet -Don Ringelestein, CTO, Maine Township High School District 207, CoSN Board -Evangelina Mendoza, CTO, San Antonio Independent School District, CoSN Board -Tim Clark & Monica Watts, 1EdTech -Melody Lam, Learning Tools Developer, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools -Dayna Aravich & Dan Stoneman, Gartner -Shahryar Khazei, retired CIO of Los Angeles Unified, CoSN Board -Tom Ryan, Co-Founder at K-12 Strategic Technology Advisory Group, former CIO of Albuquerque Public Schools, and member of the Council of Great City Schools -Jan Mills, Senior Vice President of Sales, ClassLink -Steve Langford, CIO, Beaverton School District, Retiring CoSN Chair -Marlo Gaddis, CTO, Wake County Public School System -Keith Krueger, CEO, CoSN   ClassLink - Cybersecurity Rubric for Schools https://www.classlink.com/news/groundbreaking-new-cybersecurity-rubric-guides-schools-toward-improved-security-practices   ClassLink – DataGuard https://www.classlink.com/news/classlink-announces-dataguard-and-advanced-iam-tools

In tonight's episode Josh, Mark, and Eric the Intern chat about CISA's new K12 Cyber Report and their 3 fundamental items that all districts should be tackling... *hint, hint* one is MFA. Josh talks about his 3 internet outages that took place in the last 10 days and how that is causing him to look at backup WAN connections. The guys also spend time talking about the 3 year anniversary of when schools first shut down for COVID. It's hard to believe that was 3 years ago this week! Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms). Hang out with us at K12TechPro.com (and join the Community). Buy our merch!!! Vizor - 20% Off Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com SomethingCool.com - Cybersecurity Solutions Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com Provision Data Solutions Oh, and... Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com Tweet us @k12techtalkpod Visit our LinkedIn page HERE Reddit

Chris is on leave again this week, so Mark and Josh do their best to proceed without him.   Mark recaps the K12 SIX Conference that was held in Austin, Texas. Josh talks about trying to change a SSID over to WPA3 and it did not go well. They also talk about a new method students are using to attempt to crack WPA2 passphrases on Chromebooks using the chrome://net-export page. The majority of this episode is an interview that Chris and Mark conducted with Mr. Doug Levin, founder of K12 SIX. Doug sat down with the guys to talk about what K12 SIX offers to districts and what the goal of the conference is. LISTEN HERE (and on all major podcast platforms). Hang out with us at K12TechPro.com Buy our merch!!! Vizor - 20% Off Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com SomethingCool.com - Cybersecurity Solutions Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com Provision Data Solutions Oh, and... Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com Tweet us @k12techtalkpod Visit our LinkedIn page HERE Reddit