Category: Security

With new funding opportunities available, now is the time for state and local government agencies to act quickly and think strategically about their approach to building a resilient whole-of-state (WOS) cybersecurity strategy. Some trailblazing states have had measures of success in establishing a WOS footprint by thinking strategically about short and long-term outcomes to support secure digital transformations and protect constituent data and services. Learn some best practices that organizations can consider in their WOS cybersecurity approach.

AWS joins the White House, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Education, and other leaders in government, industry, and the education community to improve the cybersecurity resilience of K12 education communities. As part of our support, AWS is bolstering our longstanding collaboration with K12 education communities, state departments of education, teaching and learning companies, and EdTechs through key commitments, including $20 million for a K12 Cyber Grant Program available to all K12 school districts and state departments of education.

Cyber events are unfortunately becoming a common event in higher education. When Hartnell College experienced a cyber event in 2022, they used AWS while working with AWS Partner Ferrilli to recover and rebuild their systems. Based on the lessons learned from Hartnell College’s experience, higher education leaders can explore certain steps to better prevent and prepare against cyber events.

Sekolah.mu is the first blended learning system in Indonesia that offers learning programs for all types of learners. Their mission is to engage Indonesian K12 school children to help them succeed in key competencies and future achievements by providing quality education services with a personalized and flexible curriculum. Sekolah.mu knew it was integral to secure their digital education services to earn the trust and confidence of the students, teachers, and families. Sekolah.mu built their education platform on AWS to achieve this important mission.

With a growing focus on cybersecurity and available grant funding, many states are planning to protect state agencies, cities, counties, and schools. At the state and federal levels, programs are funded to support these efforts. State and local government (SLG) agencies now have procurement questions to ask and decisions to make to maximize governance and security, simplify vendor management, and accelerate the overall process within a heavily regulated procurement environment. Learn three important considerations for public sector procurement of cybersecurity solutions, as well as best practices from AWS for leveraging these new cybersecurity programs.

Many organizations within state and local government (SLG) and education must build digital environments and services that meet a variety of dynamic security and compliance considerations, such as StateRAMP and Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). Learn key top-level best practices from AWS for how to use AWS Security Services to meet the unique needs of education and SLG organizations.

Public sector customers face challenges to accomplish complex missions with limited resources. Many IT teams are tasked with implementing centralized network security via third-party firewall appliances; protecting internet access by allowing secure connections to only approved destinations; and scaling security across many AWS accounts and virtual private clouds (VPCs)—all with reduced management and operational complexity. In this blog post, learn two options for how to manage network security with third-party firewall appliances.

At AWS, our customers and partners serving government, nonprofit, healthcare, and education are focusing on advancing the way they deliver critical services, improve the customer experience, build resilience into how they operate, and respond to disruptive events. With much progress made to date and with customers expecting the same digital experience and service as in other industries, expectations are only getting higher. So how can public sector organizations approach this new dynamic, and how can AWS support their missions?

The recent Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Security Policy update contains important cloud computing language that aligns with the AWS approach to building CJIS compliant solutions. Learn more about the CJIS Security Policy changes and how AWS supports these new policies.

In September 2022, the State of Arizona Department of Homeland Security (AZDOHS) launched a new program to bolster the cybersecurity of Arizona’s most vulnerable cities, counties, and K12 school districts. The Arizona Statewide Cyber Readiness Grant Program enables local entities to reduce their cyberattack surface by accessing technical assistance and software licenses across five functional areas. The Cyber Grant Task Force selected two software providers from the AWS Marketplace hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Tanium and CrowdStrike to assist cities, counties, and schools with improving their cybersecurity posture.