K12 Tech Talk

Episode 135 - An Interview with Alaina Clark from CISA

This is a special episode - We sat down with Alaina Clark, the Assistant Director of Stakeholder Engagement at CISA. We were very happy she agreed to come on and chat with us about all things CISA. She talked about what CISA can help your district accomplish related to your cyber posture, the White House event, and the newly announced Secure By Design Initiative for K12. We really appreciate the time she spent with us and we hope to have folks from CISA on again in the future.
Mark and I also quickly talk about the big announcement from Google extending AUE for Chromebooks out to 10 years of life. This is a huge step for device life and cutting down on e-waste.
We don't have any sponsor this week due to the special episode, but you know who they are, go visit them.

Episode 134 - Dealing With a SIS Outage

Every week we say this, but here we go again...
It's been a rough few days for Mark and Josh. Mark started school this week and is tired and worn. From power outages to heatwaves, Mark experienced it during his first day of school.
Josh had 3 days in a row with major SIS outages ranging from a half day to 20 minutes. This caused him to edit his incident response plan and work through plans for attendance and food service.
We also tease an upcoming interview with Alaina Clark, Assistant Director for Stakeholder Engagement for CISA. This interview should be released in the next few days. We are super thankful that Alaina and CISA agreed to this interview.
Listen Here or on all major pod platforms
Join the K12TechPro.com Community.
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SomethingCool.com
Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com
Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com
Jupiter - Email Stuart at stuart.miles@jupitered.com
Looking for a new SIS? Here is our general “demo” video:
Jupiter Demo
And learn more here:
Jupiter
Oh, and...
Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com
Tweet us err X us @k12techtalkpod
Visit our LinkedIn page HERE

Episode 133 - How Do You Handle Your 1:1 Deployment?

This is a wild one. We start out recapping our first two weeks of school, but quickly realize Josh is doing all the talking.  We talk about a few news stories of cyber incidents at school districts in Connecticut and Maryland. While talking about these incidents, Mark takes offense that Josh and Chris thought Maryland was considered a New England state.
The majority of this episode is spent on a topic we found on a Facebook group called "The Principals Desk." There was a post in that group recently talking about different ways to rollout a 1:1 deployment and the pro/cons of each. So, we decided to discuss those options from our viewpoints with upwards of 10 years of 1:1 history each of our districts.
Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms).
Join the K12TechPro.com Community.
Buy our merch!!!
SomethingCool.com
Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com
Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com
Jupiter - Email Stuart at stuart.miles@jupitered.com
Looking for a new SIS? Here is our general “demo” video:
Jupiter Demo
And learn more here:
Jupiter
Oh, and...
Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com
Tweet us err X us @k12techtalkpod
Visit our LinkedIn page HERE

Episode 132 - Beginner’s Guide to Implementing CIS Controls

It was past Josh's bed time when this episode was recorded, so he let's Mark do all the talking. Mark shows off his Google Sheet skills by walking us through the CIS controls, specifically IG1. IG1 was mentioned at the White House Convening on K12 Cybersecurity a few weeks ago and we thought it was a good idea to delve into what that means and how to get started with implementation. Mark also talks about the CIS Workbook to help you rate your current security posted against CIS Controls. After completing the Workbook, you are presented with a report that gives you starting points for your weakest ratings.
Here is a spreadsheet with IG1, IG2 and IG3. For the sake of this episode, we only focused on IG1.
Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms).
Join the K12TechPro.com Community.
Buy our merch!!!
SomethingCool.com
Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com
Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com
Jupiter - Email Stuart at stuart.miles@jupitered.com
Looking for a new SIS? Here is our general “demo” video:
Jupiter Demo
And learn more here:
Jupiter
Oh, and...
Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com
Tweet us err X us @k12techtalkpod
Visit our LinkedIn page HERE

Episode 131 - The Room Where It Happens

In this episode, we are happy to have a special guest with us, Josh from New Hampshire AKA "The Other Josh." He was one of approximately 15 K12 CIO's invited to last week's White House Convening. Josh gives us a bit of a behind the scenes look at everything from the e-vite to the event itself. We also have more "hot takes" on what we want to see from Google and other big players in the K12 product/service space. Side Note - This episode had some recording/editing issues. We're sorry. We're trying new podcast recording software and it didn't go so well lolol. Mark tried to fix it. Kudos to Mark.
Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms).
Join the K12TechPro.com Community.
Buy our merch!!!
Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com - Free Security Awareness Training
NTP
Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com
ConvergeOne
SomethingCool.com
Oh, and...
Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com
Tweet us err X us @k12techtalkpod
Visit our LinkedIn page HERE

Episode 130 - Hot Takes on the White House Convening

In this episode, Chris recaps his trip to the Annual ISAC Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah last week. We talk about a new Papercut Vulnerability, a study that shows 47% of schools paid ransom groups, and Zoom's abrupt change to their TOS and Privacy Policy to include AI training.
However, the majority of this episode is about the White House convening that took place this week. They brought in big players in "Big IT" along with representatives from K12 school districts around the country to announce new initiatives to protect schools. One of those items is a new Guidebook from Google, however, we do have some "Hot Takes" on what was announced...
Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms).
Join the K12TechPro.com Community.
Buy our merch!!!
Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com - Free Security Awareness Training
NTP
Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com
ConvergeOne
SomethingCool.com
Oh, and...
Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com
Tweet us err X us @k12techtalkpod
Visit our LinkedIn page HERE

Episode 129 - Supply Chain Woes

In this episode, Chris leads us off with sad stories about storms, power outages, dead UPSs, and dead servers. Mark leads us in a discussion about a new report from CISA titled "2022 Top Routinely Exploited Vulnerabilities." It is an interesting report on the top leveraged vulnerabilities for 2022 and methods to mitigate. Josh doesn't have any stories, but he talks A LOT.
Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms).
Join the K12TechPro.com Community.
Buy our merch!!!
KCAV
Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com
Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com
VIZOR
SomethingCool.com
Oh, and...
Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com
Tweet us err X us @k12techtalkpod
Visit our LinkedIn page HERE

Episode 128 - Summer Account Woes

The guys discuss the woes of new employees, employees changing positions, and employees leaving. They do a couple listener emails and discuss K12TechPro. Oh, and they try out a LIVE STREAM of the podcast via K12TechPro (more of that coming down the road probably!). Finally, Chris gives a bit more clarity on the vetting roadmap of K12TechPro and the k12sysadmin subreddit.
Listen here (and on all major podcast platforms).
Join the K12TechPro.com Community.
Buy our merch!!!
RTI
Fortinet - Email fortinetpodcast@fortinet.com
Extreme Networks - Email dmayer@extremenetworks.com
VIZOR
SomethingCool.com
Oh, and...
Email us at k12techtalk@gmail.com
Tweet us @k12techtalkpod
Visit our LinkedIn page HERE