On Wednesday, Oct. 22, Lynchburg City Schools (LCS) co-hosted the first Virginia K-12 Cybersecurity Conference, in collaboration with Amherst County Public Schools and Louisa County Public Schools. “Virginia CyberCon” was designed to help school technology staff better fortify schools against online threats and educate Virginia school division leaders on cybersecurity.
“This conference is the first of its kind for K-12 school districts in Virginia. This event is leading the way by providing real, practical cybersecurity training to school division leaders and staff members,” said LCS Director of Information Technology (IT) John Collins.
School IT teams, superintendents, and division leaders from across the Commonwealth convened in Charlottesville for a day of free hands-on technology education and networking. The keynote speaker was John Hammond, a principal cybersecurity researcher, educator, and content creator.
Participants started the morning with an overview of cybersecurity threats, including a student-led phishing demonstration. For several hours, they participated in an in-depth tabletop exercise, in which participants worked together with staff from other districts to respond to simulated cyberattacks. Attendees participated in a hands-on cybersecurity workshop and developed incident response plans to better prepare their divisions for real-life threats.
“Cybersecurity isn’t just a concern for IT staff. It’s a team effort that requires participation from every employee in a school division, starting with leadership. That’s why CyberCon was created with superintendents and tech directors in mind,” Collins said.