Mike Shuman vigorously educates Beavercreek City Schools families, students and staff on cybersecurity.
"Unfortunately, it's people's jobs out there specifically to get in and steal all of our data," said Shuman, director of technology for the district.
This year, Beavercreek City School's cybersecurity practices earned the district recognition. They’re now certified as a Trusted Learning Environment.
"People are paid to steal our stuff," Shuman said. "The fact we live in a world where that's a job. That is something that doesn't sit well with me."
According to Shuman, one strategy that enhances the district’s cybersecurity is teaching staff and students to create 15 character passwords by using pass phrases.
"You take words that mean something to you, and put them together. Not words like your names and your kids' names and your dog name, none of the ordinary stuff," he warned. "Something else, maybe your favorite composer. And you put it together to make a long password that's memorable."
Other cybersecurity actions Shuman recommended include logging off your computer when you walk away from it, never sharing your username or password and establishing multi factor verification.
"We as humans tend to trust people, and we tend to want to help people. And those people who are good at social engineering know how to prey on those two items, and they're very good at it."
The district is also working to update their network locations in buildings.
"Our buildings were all built a long time ago. When technology came in and people decided where to put it, they found any spot they could. They're in custodial closets. They're in library closets. They're in all kinds of weird places," said Shuman.
He said a few buildings have a dedicated space for technology.
"One of the cybersecurity framework requirements is physical security, which makes sense, because if somebody can get into your switches and hook something into them, that's a problem," he said.
According to Shuman, his team is also working to install keyless doors for the rooms housing sensitive digital equipment.
This will enable him to track who enters the room, what they access and when they leave.
Shuman said he's also focused on email security.
"Social engineering, phishing, those things are the easiest attack vectors for cyber criminals," Shuman said. "We as humans tend to trust people, and we tend to want to help people. And those people who are good at social engineering know how to prey on those two items, and they're very good at it."
Shuman feels good about the districts cybersecurity practices and notes there are numerous firewalls in place.
He also said his team uses AI tools to watch digital traffic and where it's going. According to Shuman, if its determined the there's a problem, firewalls are in place to automatically stops it.
Update are automatically done and the district's network is segmented. This means data is split up. Thus, if a hacker infiltrates one area, they can not access other information. Security tools prevent them from invading other sections.
