School districts know that the battle against cybersecurity is a growing problem, vexing even the largest schools in the state.
To that end, a state agency is offering a next generation software to the Iowaβs school districts for up to 16 months at no cost to the schools.
The Iowa Department of Management Division of Information Technology (DOM-DoIT), formerly the Office of the Chief Information Officer, is offering Endpoint Detection and Response. This is a security tool that detects and prevents a wide range of known and unknown cyber attacks on computers, servers and other devices. The service also includes state-of-the-art, around-the-clock security incident monitoring and response for schools.
The agency is providing licenses for devices β devices being servers, laptops, and desktops β for each public K-12 district in Iowa based on their sizes:
- Districts with student populations up to 1,000 receive four licenses.
- Districts with student populations from 1,001 to 3,500 receive 15 licenses.
- Districts with student populations of 3,501 and higher receive 77 licenses.
- Districts may purchase additional licenses at an annual cost of $98.88 per device.
A webinar will be held at 10 a.m. on Oct. 31 giving details about the cybersecurity protection. Administrators and IT professionals are asked to register [link removed] for the webinar.
In addition, districts wanting to take advantage of this must:
- Respond to this Program Participation Survey to elect or decline Program participation.
- Upon election to participate in the Program a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) will be sent from DOM-DoIT
- Participating districts and AEAs will have to sign a MOU with DOM-DoIT in order to participate.
Questions may be emailed to government.services@iowa.gov.