Enhancing Cybersecurity in K-12 and Higher Education

Education is the most targeted industry for cyberattacks. Here’s how schools and universities are fighting back.

Why Watch

Your Mission Is Too Important for Security to Get in the Way

Schools and universities are being asked to do the impossible: protect thousands of students, staff, and devices with lean IT teams, tight budgets, and strict compliance requirements like FERPA and state privacy laws. Meanwhile, attackers are using AI to launch faster, more sophisticated phishing and ransomware campaigns — and ransomware-as-a-service has lowered the barrier to entry to just a few dollars.

In this one-hour panel, education technology veterans from Forsyte and Microsoft share what they’re seeing in the field every day, including why most incidents trace back to a single compromised identity, and why the “nobody would target us” mindset is the most dangerous assumption a district or campus can make.

In This Webinar, You’ll Learn:

• Why education is attackers’ number one target — and the budget, staffing, and compliance pressures that create security blind spots across K-12 and higher ed
• Why identity is the new firewall — the vast majority of the threats Forsyte detects and remediates trace back to a compromised user identity
• How to unify security across device sprawl — bringing Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebooks, iPads, and IoT devices into a single dashboard your team can actually manage
• How AI and automation level the playing field — including automatic attack disruption that isolates compromised devices and suspends risky accounts, even at 3 a.m.
• How to balance innovation and protection — enabling new learning tools and managing shadow IT without shutting down the classroom
• The first critical steps after an attack — containment, recovery, backup strategy, and why an untested incident response plan is barely a plan at all
• The one thing to do starting tomorrow — each panelist’s single highest-impact recommendation to improve your security posture right away

Meet the Panel

Chris Irwin — Chief Technology Officer, Forsyte IT Solutions 25+ years in IT, including a decade at Microsoft on the education team. Chris leads Forsyte’s technical strategy for identity and cybersecurity.

Jeremy Fass — Chief Sales Officer, Forsyte IT Solutions In the IT industry since 1992, Jeremy leads Forsyte’s work with colleges, universities, and school districts nationwide, helping education leaders build practical, affordable security strategies.

Ash Summer — Cybersecurity Specialist, Microsoft 15 years across healthcare and education IT, Ash supports K-12 and higher education institutions nationwide on security strategy within the Microsoft ecosystem.

Moderated by Carl Hooker— Educational consultant, author, speaker, and former K-12 IT leader.

The Numbers Behind the Threat

• Education was among the hardest-hit sectors in the U.S. in Microsoft’s most recent Digital Defense Report
• Two-thirds of school districts don’t have a dedicated cybersecurity role (CoSN)
• Districts use an average of 2,700+ digital tools each year — every one a potential entry point
• A 24/7 in-house SOC typically requires 8–13 staff — outsourcing delivers the same always-on coverage at a fraction of the cost