A recent security breach to the District 205 network is prompting school officials to look into the purchase of managed detection and response service aimed at reducing the impact and likelihood of another cyber attack.
John Asplund, District 205 superintendent of schools, tells WGIL that in August District 205 experienced a possible security incident, and the school district has heightened concern around its capability to detect and respond to future attacks.
“We had a data breach back in August, and we’re still trying to figure out what the extent of that data breach was,” Asplund said. “But we know someone from the outside did get into our systems. It doesn’t appear any permanent damage was done, but it’s obviously not something we want to have recur.
“This would be to add a layer of security, and prevent that from ever happening again.”
Asplund said an outside firm has been hired to examine how many employees had their information accessed.
“We do know some employees information was accessed, but the number is very small from what we are aware of,” Asplund said.
On Monday, the District 205 Board of Education will be asked to approve a proposal from Heart Technologies to implement the Arctic Wolf Managed Detection & Response and Managed Awareness programs for the district’s network.
A summary from Heart Technologies found District 205 does not have the security coverage to perform continuous network/log aggregation, review, investigations, and incident management. Furthermore, recent incidents highlighted that District 205 lacks the coverage to holistically monitor, detect, and respond to malicious activity.
The service would provide 24x7x365 monitoring and detection to eliminate cyber risk and ensure District 205 doesn’t have additional incidents disrupting the learning process.
Cost of the Arctic Wolf Managed Detection and Response and Managed Security Awareness program is $73,559.88 for the first year of a 5-year contract.
