The White House on Tuesday convened government officials, school administrators and private sector companies to announce new steps to boost cybersecurity in U.S. schools – recently plagued by ransomware attacks. 

The actions include new federal and private sector funding to strengthen cyber defense in elementary, middle and high schools, an increase in training offered and an effort to bolster coordination between federal, state and local leaders in education.

“If we want to safeguard our children's futures, we must protect their personal data,” first lady Jill Biden, who spoke about her own experiences as a professor at Northern Virginia Community College, said to open up the summit. 

The first lady was joined by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in leading Tuesday’s event. 

“Let’s be clear: we need to be taking these cyber attacks on schools as seriously as we do the physical attacks on critical infrastructure,” Cardona said. 

The move follows an increase in cyber attacks on school systems in recent years, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

“We've seen significant cyber attacks happening across the United States, disrupting school operations and perhaps even more significantly, stealing kids' sensitive data, psychiatric records, grade records,” White House Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technologies Anne Neuberger said in an interview with Spectrum News on Tuesday. 

Last year, a ransomware attack on Los Angeles Unified School District – the country's second-largest school district – stoked nationwide concern.  In Nov. 2020, classes at Baltimore County Public Schools were disrupted for several days after the school system was hacked by a phishing email. 

Cybersecurity firm Emsisoft reports so far this year, at least 48 districts have experienced ransomware attacks, with all but 10 having data stolen. 

Neuberger told Spectrum News the administration believes these acts are “financially driven.” 

“We believe it's criminals, in some cases criminals living outside the United States, who are seeking to force companies, in this case, schools to pay a ransom to recover or to protect their data,” Neuberger said. “And frankly, each one that pays a ransom drives more and more cyber attacks.” 

“Do not underestimate the ruthlessness of those who wish to do us harm,” Mayorkas added during the summit. 

As part of Tuesday’s announcement, the Federal Communications Commission is proposing a program providing up to $200 million to schools and libraries to shore up cybersecurity. The funds come from the Universal Services Fund – which Neuberger said was created 25 years ago to help schools with internet access. 

“They now recognize that should really be funding school cybersecurity because unsecured access, unsecured tech in schools is what's facilitating these cyber attacks,” she said. 

In tandem with the federal funding, Amazon Web Services is also launching a $20 million grant program available to all school districts and state education departments as well as offering training to school IT staff.

“We want to help upskill and reskill IT staff that are supporting the front line of the schools,” Vice President of U.S. state, local and education at Amazon Web Services Kim Majerus said in an interview with Spectrum News. 

“The number one concern that we hear from our customers, not only institutions but in the commercial market as well, is the upskill and reskill of their current staff,” she added. “Technology constantly changes and ensuring that they have the assets available to them is most important.” 

Another company, PowerSchool – which provides software for about 80% of school districts, according to the White House – is offering free training and courses. 

“We only see a small fraction of the total threats school districts face because they have dozens, if not hundreds of different applications, a lot of them legacy, manual processes,” PowerSchool CEO Hardeep Gulati said. “Each of those touch points actually creates risk of vulnerabilities as well as human error.”

The Department of Education is also creating a Government Coordinating Council to increase collaboration between the government and school districts.