Developing a cybersecurity policy for your business is now a necessity. In a world where cyber-attacks are happening daily, when school districts or even entire cities being shut down more frequently due to ransomware and other malicious attacks, it was only a matter of time before the government would step in to ensure the online safety of our school districts.

Earlier this year the 86th Texas Legislature passed the Senate Bill 820, a new bill designed for Texas ISDs to enforce strict cybersecurity enforcement policies. If you are part of the Texas ISD umbrella and handle student Personally Identifiable Information (PII), beginning September 1st, 2019, the law will require your school district to instate and follow a cybersecurity policy.

What is the Texas Senate Bill 820?

The Texas Senate Bill 820, or Texas SB820, requires Texas school districts to institute these three steps:

  1. Every school district must develop and maintain a cybersecurity policy. A policy needs to be devised for each district to secure their network infrastructures and workstations against online threats to PII, as well as a Risk Management and Implementation plan. This means that all connected devices, users, permissions, and data within every Texas school district must be evaluated to determine the level of risk of each, as well as a plan of action for proper security from data breaches and other cyber-attacks. The framework of this policy must be consistent with Chapters 2054 and 2059 of the information security standards of the Texas Department of Information Resources, which can be found here.
  2. Designate a cybersecurity coordinator. Within the cybersecurity policy, a cybersecurity coordinator must be appointed to act as the point of contact for when any cyber-attacks on the district’s infrastructure takes place. The Texas SB820 mandates that the district superintendent is responsible for designating who assumes the role of cybersecurity coordinator and for their duties under the role.
  3. The cybersecurity coordinator must report all cybersecurity incidents to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and families. The Texas SB820 bill also mandates that the TEA must be reported on any cyber-attack on the district’s cybersecurity infrastructure, whether a successful attempt or not, as soon as the incident has been discovered. They are also required to provide notice to the parents or guardians of any and all students whose PII may have been compromised.

In order to adhere to Texas SB820, a proper IT cybersecurity solution must be implemented to ensure that their infrastructure is secure and all student PII is protected.

neoRhino’s certified IT consultants and helpdesk agents can assist your school district in abiding by the new Texas SB820 initiative. We can help you formulate your cybersecurity policy, risk management, and arm your computers with the latest remote-managed solution so we can do the heavy lifting for you.

Contact us at info@neorhino.com or call us at 281-779-4850 today and we can keep your network protected from a cyber-attack.

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