K12 Tech Talk

Episode 119 - An Interview with Lucas from PIRG

We quickly talk about the SchoolDude breach and Keepass's newly announced CVE. The majority of the episode is an interview with Lucas from PIRG. Lucas is the author of the study we referenced a few weeks ago in the episode "Chromebooks are Evil?." The study looks at "Chromebook Churn" and e-waste created by device usage. After that episode a few weeks ago, Lucas reached out to us to clarify a few points of the study.  So, we invited him on to make those clarifications to our listeners. We had an interesting discussion with Lucas, and came away agreeing on more points than we disagree.
Article that Mark refers to - Why do we replace our laptops every few years?
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Managed Methods - free Google Workspace and/or Microsoft 365 security audit
Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com
Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com
NTP
SomethingCool.com
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Episode 118 - The Gang Finally Meets

🎶Together and it feels so good...🎵
We are all together for the first time at the New Hampshire CTO Clinic! First and foremost, we thank Barbara and the committee for inviting us and making the trip possible - We had a blast!
We got to hang out with the fine folks of the "Live Free or Die" State and talk all things K12 technology. The key topics were cybersecurity and data privacy. We had a chance to interview Pam and Josh, two of the driving forces behind New Hampshire's outstanding Student Data Privacy standards. We also interview Neal who everyone says "Neal is the State's cyber guy!"
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Join the K12TechPro.com Community.
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Managed Methods
Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com
Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com
NTP
SomethingCool.com
Oh, and...
Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com
Tweet us @k12techtalkpod

Episode 117 - Lakota Schools Cyber Academy

This is a bit of a special episode. We are in New Hampshire for the NHCTO Clinic, so we prerecorded a few interviews. The first interview you will hear is with Andrew and George from Lakota Local School District. George is a student in high school and is completing their Cyber Academy program and gaining Industry Recognized Certificates (Including Security+ and CEH pro). This has opened doors for George and he is currently working as a cybersecurity professional for a company in his area while going to school. It's a really cool program and has given us a few ideas.
The second interview you will hear is a chat with a number of representatives from Absolute. They go into detail about what their product can offer schools.
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Join the K12TechPro.com Community.
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Absolute - Email oschmidt@absolute.com
Absolute - Ensuring your Students’ Safety
Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com
SomethingCool.com - X360 Cloud Solution for backing up Google Workspace
Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com
NTP
Oh, and...
Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com
Tweet us @k12techtalkpod

Episode 116 - Chromebooks Are Evil?

Mark is worked up this week, but first... Chris asks us how to keep printers from getting to bad websites, we talk about the big PaperCut vulnerability announced last week, we compare Chris' personality and mannerisms to Ted Lasso, we talk about the new pending Federal Legislation to enhance K12 Cyber Security, and Mark talks about Domain Doppelgänger from KnowBe4.
The majority of this episode is spent talking about a "study" that was published last week about how Chromebooks are evil. The study talks about how schools have spent money buying millions of Chromebooks but those Chromebooks can't be repaired, have a "death date," and creating huge amounts of e-waste. This article got Mark worked up and he walks us through debunking each and every claim in this article and, in the process, we have a few good laughs.
K12 Cyber Legislation - https://thejournal.com/articles/2023/04/20/federal-legislation-would-create-k12-cybersecurity-improvement-program.aspx
PIRG "study" - https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/chromebook-churn-report-highlights-problems-of-short-lived-laptops-in-schools/
Papercut CVE - https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/exploit-released-for-papercut-flaw-abused-to-hijack-servers-patch-now/
Domain Doppelgänger - https://www.knowbe4.com/domain-doppelganger
Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms).
Join the K12TechPro.com Community.
Buy our merch!!!
Absolute - Email oschmidt@absolute.com
Strengthening Security and Compliance Posture through Cyber Resilience in Education
Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com
SomethingCool.com - X360 Cloud Solution for backing up Google Workspace
Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com
NTP
Oh, and...
Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com
Tweet us @k12techtalkpod

Episode 115 - Tabletop Exercises with SZA?

In this episode, Josh is really confused about the artist known as SZA and CISA, Mark reads a listener email, Chris talks about the tabletop exercise he did with his district administration team, and the guys banter about Missouri's proposed Senate Bill 4 that could affect website access.
Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms).
Join the K12TechPro.com Community.
Buy our merch!!!
Absolute - Email oschmidt@absolute.com
Strengthening Security and Compliance Posture through Cyber Resilience in Education
Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com
SomethingCool.com - X360 Cloud Solution for backing up Google Workspace
Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com
NTP
Oh, and...
Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com
Tweet us @k12techtalkpod
Visit our LinkedIn page HERE
Reddit
NH CTO Clinic
 
 

Episode 114 - D&D: School Edition

We have a number of listener emails that we address tonight. One is about shutting down SIS during off hours in an effort to protect it from attacks, one is about the Chrome net-export exploit, and the final one is about our retrospective on the COVID Years. We talk about CISA's new tabletop exercise template and how it would be fun to treat like it D&D: School Edition. We also talk about Black Hills Information Security's "Backdoors & Breaches" card game. We also talk about how "testing season" has changed over the last 5-7 years; from when devices were shared and testing was staggered to now when you can test an entire building in a few days.
Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms).
Join the K12TechPro.com Community.
Buy our merch!!!
Absolute - Email oschmidt@absolute.com
Absolute Ransomware Response
Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com
SomethingCool.com - X360 Cloud Solution for backing up Google Workspace
Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com
Provision Data Solutions
Oh, and...
Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com
Tweet us @k12techtalkpod
Visit our LinkedIn page HERE
Reddit
NH CTO Clinic
 

Episode 113 - How to Tackle Student Data Privacy Agreements

In this episode, the guys talk about key things to keep in mind when working with vendors to get Student Data Privacy Agreements signed. They also talk about the Clever outage on 4/6/2023. Josh also talks Chris into changing a Google Admin WiFi setting while riding in the car.
Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms).
Join the K12TechPro.com Community.
Buy our merch!!!
Absolute - Email oschmidt@absolute.com
Absolute Audit Support Video
Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com
SomethingCool.com - X360 Cloud Solution for backing up Google Workspace
Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com
Provision Data Solutions
Oh, and...
Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com
Tweet us @k12techtalkpod
Visit our LinkedIn page HERE
Reddit

Episode 112 - Chris is Finally Back!

Chris is back after a suspension and traveling to the CoSN conference. He recaps some of the discussion and overall trending topics from the CoSN conference. He also discusses the fact that he did not appreciate Eric the Intern's love for walking everywhere in Austin (and other Eric antics).
Josh talks about the 3CX phone system vulnerability that was published 3/29/2023 by CrowdStrike and Red Canary. Hint - If you have a 3CX phone system, you will want to look this issue up and mitigate it right away.
Of course, ChatGPT makes it's way into conversation this week again too.
Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms).
Join the K12TechPro.com Community.
Buy our merch!!!
Absolute - Email oschmidt@absolute.com
Absolute Education Solutions Brief
Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com
SomethingCool.com - X360 Cloud Solution for backing up Google Workspace
Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com
Provision Data Solutions
Oh, and...
Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com
Tweet us @k12techtalkpod
Visit our LinkedIn page HERE
Reddit