Resources

Earlier this month, on March 2, NIST formalized a significant number of changes to its password recommendations as part of the final release of its updated Digital Identify Guidelines document or NIST publication SP 800-63-3.  The full document which includes three additional sister documents (800-63A, 800-63B & 800-63C) is here: https://csrc.

As part of our client school district’s response for Corona virus preparedness, we see an uptick in requests for VPN access into the school district’s networks.  With the potential increase in VPN users and remote connections into your district’s systems, we thought now would be a good time to remind you of a few best practices […]

This morning I read the headline that a second New York school district has shutdown over Coronavirus concerns.  The question becomes how does a school district function if school is closed for an extended period of time?   Besides the obvious impacts to teaching and learning there is a whole lot of back office processes that […]

We have all had at a flood of information come at us in the last nine months regarding ransomware, malware, and cyber security options from all different quarters (cyber-seminars, vendors, various government agencies, and from even yours truly). It is easy to see how one could get a bit lost as to how to decide […]

Microsoft has announced they are tightening the security standards for LDAP communications on Microsoft Active Directory networks.  This has huge implications as there are so many things in a typical school district’s use that require some form of LDAP communication.

In the continuing quest to battle ransomware in our networks, as well as other types of malware, just this month (Jan 2020) the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a brand-new guide to assist in this battle.

Happy New Year!   Unfortunately, there is no rest for the weary fighting the battle to keep everyone safe. Today I read a couple of scary articles: “Couple says their Smart Home was hacked” Most of you are installing all of these IoT, IP enabled devices throughout your network.

As 2019 comes to a close, on behalf of everyone here at CSI, I would like to say thank you for entrusting us with your technology needs.  We appreciate the opportunity to be a part of providing an outstanding educational experience to all your students and staff.

Happy Holidays. As we go through the last full school week before the holiday break, I have a couple of quick professional and personal thoughts:      You should use the holiday break to re-calibrate your UPSes.  Remember Smart UPSes need periodic re-calibration.

The Cybersecurity news has been pretty depressing over the last week. I read an article that a Cybersecurity insurance company is refusing to pay for a Merck breach incident because it is NotPetya and that is from Russia and was designed as a cyber warfare tool.