Identity Automation Partners with the Global Resilience Federation's K12 SIX Intelligence Sharing Hub to Strengthen Cyber Resilience in U.S. Schools

Partners collaborate to raise cybersecurity standards in K-12 Education, as school districts face unprecedented threats

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Jan 25, 2022, 09:00 ET

HOUSTON, Jan. 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Identity Automation, the digital identity platform for education, and K12 SIX, a nonprofit division of the Global Resilience Federation (GRF) that focuses on advancing cyber resilience for public school districts and private schools in the U.S., today announced a partnership to help districts fight back against the malicious actors who hope to take advantage of them. The partners will collaborate to counter threats, develop best practices and take collective action to raise cybersecurity standards.

K12 SIX, which offers threat analysis and a secure collaboration platform for school IT and security professionals, partners with cybersecurity leaders in the education sector, like Identity Automation, which delivers comprehensive identity and access management solutions for learning institutions. Both partners seek to protect student information and safeguard school data, and recognize that doing so requires broad collaboration. This mission is more urgent than ever, as schools face unprecedented threats.

"As data and analysis GRF provided for a congressional report show, K-12 data breaches expose students to significant harm, compromising vital data, like academic records, assessments scores and students' personal information," said K12 SIX National Director Douglas Levin. "School cybersecurity is an ecosystem issue, and no one actor can address it alone. It takes an ecosystem-wide effort, and we're partnering with education-focused organizations, like Identity Automation to raise standards."

Schools are historically underserved by the cybersecurity industry, which largely focuses on the commercial sector. Most schools simply don't have the budget or dedicated staff to implement the same robust protections and threat assessment protocols large corporations use to safeguard data and protect identities. And yet, even an average US school district would be classified as a large enterprise, with the largest districts being the equivalent of Fortune 10 companies.

That's why partnerships like the one established between K12 SIX and Identity Automation make sense. Greater collaboration on threat assessments and teamwork to create standards around user authorization and data access can address educational institutions' concerns about student data privacy and compliance with regulatory guidelines. Schools need affordable solutions that deliver robust security in a way that helps them meet learning goals by maximizing instruction time.

"Threats to data security are increasing, and education is a highly regulated sector," said Identity Automation CEO Jim Harold. "Schools do have detailed protocols and allocate budget dollars to handle many issues, including, unfortunately, threats to physical safety. But in many districts, the growing threat to student identities and school data doesn't get the attention it deserves. We're hopeful that our partnership with K12 SIX can help change that by giving schools the resources they need."

To learn more about Identity Automation, please visit identityautomation.com. Find out more about K12 SIX at k12six.org.

About Identity Automation

Identity Automation provides identity and access management (IAM) solutions for K-12 and higher education. Its flagship platform, RapidIdentity, safeguards learning environments, maximizes instructional time, and minimizes the load on Information & Educational Technology teams. Technology leaders turn to RapidIdentity for its best-in-class security capabilities, time-saving automation, and flexible approach to managing digital identities. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Identity Automation is trusted by Chicago Public Schools, Public Schools of North Carolina, University of Rochester, Houston Community College, and hundreds of other institutions. To learn more about partnering with Identity Automation, visit identityautomation.com.

About K12 SIX

Kindergarten Through 12th Grade Security Information Exchange (K12 SIX) is a cyber threat intelligence sharing hub for school districts, to aid in preventing and mitigating cyber-attacks. This non-profit member community is a cost-effective forum for crowdsourcing security information among a vetted, trusted group of professionals with a common interest, using common technology and with supporting, independent analysis from the K12 SIX security staff. Visit www.k12six.org to learn more. K12 SIX is a member of the Global Resilience Federation multi-sector network of information sharing communities. Media questions may be directed to Patrick McGlone at [email protected].

The K12 SIX secure collaboration platform was co-built with Cyware Labs, which has committed significant resources to support the community.

CONTACT
Kasey Christolos
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SOURCE Identity Automation