Beaufort County Community College (BCCC) in North Carolina will use $329,983 in funding to develop more options for distance learning. The grants, which came from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development Office, will allow BCCC to expand distance learning in a myriad of ways, including retrofitting additional classrooms with broadcast equipment and working with high schools in rural areas to develop ways to increase college transfer and dual-enrollment options to high school students.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and FBI issued a joint cybersecurity advisory on Oct. 22 to warn operators of state, local, territorial, and tribal (SLTT) government networks that they may be targeted by Russian state-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) actors.

A bipartisan Senate bill introduced Oct. 21 would make clear the authority of state governments to deploy their National Guard resources to help state and local governments improve their cybersecurity infrastructure and services.

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Christopher Krebs reiterated late last Tuesday that foreign hackers won’t be able to change votes cast in the U.S. elections next month, and debuted a new CISA web page that provides advice about how citizens can deal with attempts to spread misinformation about the elections.

The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) released its 2020 Cybersecurity Study, “States at Risk: The Cybersecurity Imperative in Uncertain Times,” and reported a range of challenges facing state security officials during the coronavirus pandemic.

In March and April as the spring semester came to a close, the COVID-19 pandemic upended the nation’s higher education institutions as they scrambled to get classes online for huge numbers of students.

Bob Kolasky, Director of the National Risk Management Center (NRMC) at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), today pronounced state and local election authorities “well positioned” to conduct secure elections next month.

The Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Security Agency (NSA) have launched a new initiative aimed at increasing diversity in their cybersecurity workforce.

Reps. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., introduced a bill Oct. 16 to improve cybersecurity at K-12 schools. The Enhancing K-12 Cybersecurity Act would work to promote more access to security information, better track attack trends, and increase the number of cybersecurity experts in schools.

Cyber incidents at K-12 schools over the last few years have put the personally identifiable information (PII) of students at risk, with breaches primarily resulting from intentional actions by students and unintentional actions by staff, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.