After falling victim to a successful cyberattack, Judson Independent School District in Texas confirmed that it paid a $547,045.61 ransom to “protect sensitive, identifiable information from being published on the dark web.”

The Colorado Smart Cities Alliance (the Alliance) announced a partnership with the University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver) that will look to aid the growth of smart cities by providing communities across the state access to new technologies, according to a press release.

Infrastructure week finally arrived in Washington, D.C. with the Senate’s approval of the $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on Tuesday morning. The bill – whose main tech-related titles include $65 billion for broadband and around $2 billion for cybersecurity – cleared the Senate by a vote of 69-30.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a new training guide to help IT professionals advance their careers in the Federal and state, local, tribal, and territorial cybersecurity communities.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation approved two bills during an Aug. 4 business meeting, one to ensure that the Federal Communications Commission does not approve radio frequency devices that pose a national security risk, and another to advance the adoption of composite technology.

The Toombs County School District, Ga., has launched a new digital learning platform ahead of the new school year. The school district partnered with Discovery Education to provide K-12 teachers and students access to a digital learning platform that provides access to resources in all subjects at home and in the classroom.

Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., have introduced the American Telecommunications Security Act that would prohibit Federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act from being used to purchase telecommunications equipment from Chinese companies seen as national security threats, including Huawei and ZTE.

The much-anticipated $1 trillion Senate bipartisan infrastructure bill unveiled on August 1 shows big cybersecurity funding wins for state and local governments with a $1 billion for a cybersecurity grant program, and electric utilities that will be receiving $1.25 billion through a cybersecurity grant program to protect the electric grid.

As part of California’s FY 2021-2022 budget, the California Department of Technology (CDT) will no longer charge state agencies to provide IT security services.

A new report from Sophos found that ransomware attacks against the education sector hit an all-time high in 2020.