School Districts Face Unsecure Networks

The Homeland Security Department has talked a lot about testing network security in federal government and critical infrastructure markets, but one network administrator points out there are also vulnerabilities in K-12 school districts. In an email to Nextgov, he had the following to say about his own experience:

"These entities are typically underfunded and those with funding responsibility for the network are under qualified for today's vulnerabilities to be pro-actively responsive. I'm the top level network admin for my school district employer, and have no influence in network security. Lucky I retire in a year, hopefully before a major hack of employee information. My boss was a teacher. Her IT director position requires a state teaching credential. She also got a doctorate in "educational IT," but has not spent a career learning the computer business or about [network] vulnerabilities. School districts depend on technology, but put their money in other places."

He calls the requirement for top level IT administrators to earn a teaching credential antiquated (and yes, he does have teaching credentials himself). Better would be to require network administrators to earn security credentials or at least a computer science degree plus a decade or more experience in the IT field, he suggests.