Due to the CoronaVirus Outbreak and the social distancing practiced by the masses, schools and universities have closed. Public Schools are said to be closed until at least April 30. While students were excited for the time off as a vacation, the education system has adopted a remote access model for students and teachers to access at home.

Students and teachers are using Microsoft Teams to communicate and each different class has their own chatroom. Parents are expected to ensure students are remaining productive in their homes. While schools are closed due to social distancing initiatives, this is an important initiative to help the education system continue.

Official information on Remote Learning Can be found here)

However, there have been some setbacks in remote education. A remote education system being suddenly implemented is under the assumption that every student has access to a computer at home. This is not the case. Many students began remote learning last week without the proper tools. Some households have one computer and two or more students that need to use it simultaneously.

The City is purchasing devices for students who live in public housing and are from low income neighborhoods. New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza estimated that there are a shortage of 300,000 devices across the city that will be provided to the students in coming weeks.

Compulink Recommendations

While the New York City Department of Education is currently purchasing laptops for students; there will be an adjustment period. After laptop devices, students may not have the proper headphones or other supplementary hardware to be engaged with the education.

Remote education was a sudden adoption which will cause initial hurdles in the process. It is highly advisable that when schools are back in session, teachers begin to increasingly incorporate laptops into the educational process. This would help the access to education become remote-friendly. Should students need to be home or have a homework packet during vacation, they are able to use their laptops to resume work.

Compulink Technologies became officially certified as a Minority-Owned Business Enterprise (MBE) in the State of New Jersey this week. This means that Compulink can help New Jersey based public institutions and business enterprises can meet supplier diversity goals.

Compulink Technologies is a certified Minority-Owned Business Enterprise in the City and State of New York. Because of our extensive experience with IT, strong relationships with multiple brands, and track record for procurement; we have been able to help public and private institutions in New York maintain stable, secure, and efficient IT environments.

Click here to read our case study of a recent NYC Gov Services Project

Compulink Technologies also sponsors the Compulink E-Store, a free online product research resource that can expedite supplier diversity engagement for both public and private institutions. Signing up for the Compulink E-Store is 100% free and convenient.

Earlier this year, both houses of the Legislature renewed and expanded the state Minority- and Women- Owned Business Enterprises (MWBE) program. The program originally aimed to boost the economy and increase the inclusiveness of the state contracting process.

“By increasing the personal net worth threshold to $15 million, implementing a streamlined certification process, and increasing the discretionary spending threshold to $500,000, the participation level of MWBEs will increase substantially with a direct positive economic impact,” Assembly MWBE Subcommittee Chair Rodneyse Bichotte said. 

There will be an increase on MBE Spend for New York State Government Agencies from January 2020?  The Discretionary spending threshold will increase to $500,000.

This change will boost participation of MWBEs across the state and will have a direct positive economic impact! 

Compulink Technologies Inc. has been a Minority-Women owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) for over two decades. This program has enabled us to have access to numerous business resources and to this day, we strive to support other small businesses in their business cycle today.

The news of New York State increasing MWBE discretionary spend further enables us to strengthen our resources for not only our clients in the government agency space but other small businesses as well.

Additionally, Compulink Technologies is an ardent advocate for procurement officials from government agencies to meet their supplier diversity needs. We have launched an online store that helps fast-track the government agency’s quest to meet MWBE participation goals.

Last week the Compulink Team attended the New York Government Technology Forum hosted by eRepublic. We were an exhibitor with our own booth. In this two-day event, we met many of the government agencies we are working closely with in IT Procurement in addition to our manufacturer partners.

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With the government agencies, we were sharing some of our new updates, and discussing any procurement projects we are currently working on with them. We were also discussing our e-Procurement solution that can fast-track their procurement process (Click here to visit). We also discussed how the New York State Government is increasing the discretionary spending threshold on procurement with MWBE to $500,000.

When we were in conversation with our manufacturer partners, we were discussing new IT trends and products that can benefit the government sector. From cybersecurity; cloud enablement; network management; to new hardware products, the Compulink Team and our partners were able to brainstorm most effective ways to better enable government agencies to serve our public.

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Overall NYC GovTech 2019 was an opportunity for collaboration for our team and the other organizations that were in attendance. The Compulink Team is always evolving and enthusiastic to find ways to improve the IT infrastructure of the government vertical.

On Thursday September 5th, all public schools in Flagstaff Unified School District (Arizona) were closed due to a cybersecurity issue.  The School District’s Facebook post stated: “Due to a cyber-security issue that has impacted the ability of FUSD schools to operate normally, there will be no school on Thursday, September 5^th.  FACTS, Childcare centers, and FUSD preschools have also been canceled.”

In some of the comments in response to this post, parents are expressing concerns that their children’s data may have been breached due to this incident.

The Implications

While schools having sudden closings can seem like good news for the children, there are broader costs to be considered.  For example, the Flagstaff Unified School District has a total of 15 schools, each with their distinct population of students.  There are costs involved in sudden off-days, for example: the interruption in the learning curriculum, affecting the broader educational schedule. 

Additionally, a cybersecurity breach in school can have implications on the personal data of students and faculty, as mentioned before.  Depending on the children’s circumstances, many of their parents are working and therefore rely on the daycare and school facilities to occupy their children’s time.  So a sudden closing would require parents to quickly find immediate childcare options.

The Takeaway

No matter the size of a company or organization, no entity is safe from cybersecurity issues.  It has become common for organizations to have their data within their network (or the cloud).  While we have grown comfortable digitizing our data, it is crucial to consider cybersecurity options.  From the individual using their laptop for personal use to the large enterprise, digitization of data has its vulnerabilities to security breaches.

In the context of an educational institution like the Flagstaff Unified School District, there are solutions and preventive measures that can be taken.  For example, a school district has multiple locations, similar to businesses having multiple branches.  This would mean that centralizing the network into one secure solution would both reduce costs and add the convenience of managing the network.  In the Case Study: Reading School District case study of Make-A-Wish Foundation, the organization had multiple locations with their own distinct network and later consolidated their network into one solution: Cisco Meraki.

In a centralized cloud-based IT management solution like Cisco Meraki, IT professionals can monitor all the switches, routers, and end-user devices.  The solution is scalable so new locations can easily be onboarded while existing locations are future-proofed.  The Meraki MX Security Appliance would provide advanced threat protection, and prevent anything malicious from entering the network with the breadth of Cisco’s Security teams.  Additionally, Meraki has a dashboard that would inform the IT professional about the network, from bandwidth usage to problematic practices (risky downloads on a device etc.).

To conclude, it is crucial, even for school districts, to incorporate cybersecurity solutions into their budgetary planning/decisions. To learn more about Cisco Meraki and cyber-security best practices to protect your organization, click on the image below.  (Free Access Point Available!) (Also applicable to Higher education institutions!)