YARMOUTH, Maine — When Maine launched its school laptop program through the Maine Learning Technology Initiative in 2002, the state was on the cutting edge.
At last count, 151,265 public school students benefitted from facets of the MLTI, and as schools have worked to get a device to every student, cyber threats have increased as well.
Mike Arsenault is the technology Director for Yarmouth public schools and also heads the Association of Computer Technology Educators of Maine. Yarmouth, along with 60 other school districts just split $1.5 million in MLTI grants, aimed at shoring up cyber security.
Emma Banks is the learning-through-technology coordinator with the Maine Dept. of Education.
"We have cyber threats that are more sophisticated than ever before — from ransomware to stealing data," she said. "Our schools are certainly vulnerable and they have some very sensitive information to protect."
The grants were used to buy tools, like firewalls and training; and the most money was used for "managed detection" by a third-party company. It's like home security, where the outside company monitors many devices at once for threats, spots unwanted activity, and works to stop it instantly.
Arsenault said the entire $24,000 grant Yarmouth received went toward managed detection.
"It really has become more difficult to manage," he said. "So, it's more difficult to have one person who could do it all."
While it takes some burden away, the protection is so expensive, that the funds could only cover protection for the district's network and staff devices. That leaves all 1,700 students for Arsenault's team to monitor. And Yarmouth is a relatively small district.
For Banks, teaching students how to protect themselves is the first line of defense.
"The person who is using the device having all of the information about what not to click on, where not to go, how to maintain their own safety as a user on the device; and then also working to secure the network infrastructure; that's really how you'll have the best success," Banks explained.
That is quite a task. But it's one the state and the schools are relying on in the fight against an unknown number of threats.
