Expert K-12 IT Leaders Chime in on How to Elevate Your K–12 Data Protection with MFA & Phishing Awareness

We recently hosted a live webinar to help kick off 2025, encouraging you to strengthen your school district’s cybersecurity and online safety systems. This webinar featured two expert K-12 guest panelists: Skip Cooley, Director of Technology at Clinton School District, and Tyler Derickson, Cybersecurity & Systems Administrator at Arbor Park School District 145. We thank both Skip and Tyler for sharing their tips, insights, and field-tested strategies on how to ensure your district’s data is secure and protected for a successful new year. 

To complete our two-part webinar blog series, we’re going to discuss what’s trending in 2025: multifactor authentication (MFA) and safeguarding against phishing attacks.

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) 

Industry expert Skip Cooley is betting on multi-factor authentication (MFA) as a must-have in K–12 cybersecurity for 2025. MFA strengthens the security of platforms like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 by requiring an extra verification step—whether through authenticator apps, security keys, biometrics, or one-time passwords—in addition to passwords.

As districts continue to rely on third-party edtech vendors for learning management, student information, and communication platforms, securing student data becomes a necessity. Cyber threats are only becoming more sophisticated, so your district should be demanding these extra protection steps from vendors—whether through MFA or SSO solutions—to keep student information secure.

Cooley is optimistic that the high-profile incident involving a Student Information System (SIS) lacking MFA in December 2024 will finally get everyone’s attention. His own district, Clinton, recently rolled it out for its financial systems, setting the bar high for schools nationwide. 

Phishing and Social Engineering

The next 2025 trend is a cybercriminals’ favorite trick—phishing. This scam involves fake emails or messages that pretend to be from trusted sources, persuading users to disclose sensitive information such as passwords, credit card details, or personal data. Phishing emails often ask you to verify personal records, exploiting urgency or a desire to comply with school events or IT directives. 

Social engineering is another tactic that goes beyond emails. It focuses on manipulating emotions like fear, curiosity, or trust, to give up information, with attackers knowing that psychological nudges can often bypass security systems. 

Take Tyler’s experience as an example. He’s noticed a significant increase in phishing attempts within Arbor Park, with attackers targeting everyone from teachers to superintendents. Whether it’s a request for a staff gift card, a more serious push for financial gain, or even a ransomware attack, fallout from phishing can be huge. 

Tyler’s advice? Stay alert. He recommends placing friendly reminder signs in hallways to raise awareness about the risks. Promoting a culture of security mindfulness can empower both staff and students to think twice before clicking on suspicious links to help protect the school from cyber threats.

Cloud Monitor’s Advanced Threat Protection for School Districts 

Cloud Monitor by ManagedMethods is specifically designed to protect K-12 schools from cyber threats. It can scan both internal and external emails for phishing and malware threats in the message body, attachments, and links. Through automation, you can also quarantine or delete phishing emails and files containing malware in near real-time.

Phishing and malware can also lead to account takeovers, which are notoriously difficult to detect in cloud applications. Cloud Monitor can easily detect behavior that indicates an account takeover attack is underway, such as multiple unsuccessful logins, logins from foreign locations, and failed multifactor authentication checks.If you’d like to see Cloud Monitor’s phishing threat protection in action, you can schedule a free cybersecurity and safety audit with ManagedMethods to kickstart your cybersecurity journey today.

The post K-12 Cybersecurity Trend Alert: The MFA and Phishing Playbook for 2025 appeared first on ManagedMethods Cybersecurity, Safety & Compliance for K-12.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from ManagedMethods Cybersecurity, Safety & Compliance for K-12 authored by Alexa Sander. Read the original post at: https://managedmethods.com/blog/k12-mfa-and-phishing-trends/