The start of the school year was anything but smooth for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the nation’s second-largest school district, as cyberattacks all but caused a virtual snow day for students. It's no surprise though, as remote and hybrid learning environments have been widely implemented, putting the cyber security teams of these learning institutions on high alert.
During the heart of the pandemic, school districts, eager to lay an equal playing field for students regardless of their means, handed out tablets, laptops and Wi-Fi hotspots so every child could participate in remote learning. While quite necessary in the effort that no child gets left behind, each of these devices was potentially a back door into a district’s IT networks.