A new pilot program is providing up to $200 million to schools and libraries. Selected participants can use this funding to improve their cybersecurity by purchasing various services and equipment.
DEADLINE: Applications need to be submitted before NOV 1, 2024.
The Pilot Program
The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has provided $200 million to fund a new cybersecurity pilot program over three years. USAC (Universal Service Administrative Company) will be managing the program. Applications are open from September 17th to November 1st, 2024. Selected participants can receive reimbursement for various cybersecurity services and equipment, up to a certain amount. Eligible expenses include advanced firewalls, endpoint protection, identity protection, authentication, and monitoring, detection, and response tools.
The Solution that fulfills The Pilot Program funded by FCC
Step Ahead, Sophos and TD Synnex have teamed up to provide schools with vital cybersecurity protection including hardware, software, and services to fulfill the needs of the pilot program by FCC. Sophos MDR can seamlessly integrate with your existing security infrastructure, offering a comprehensive overview through its dashboards. TD Synnex will provide the required hardware and software from various cybersecurity vendors and Step Ahead will provide the required CMMC and cybersecurity services to install, configure and support the solutions. We would like to invite school districts to participate in this program and leverage the grant to implement a robust cybersecurity. Step Ahead will guide the school district through the application process and submit for this grant. If awarded, then Step Ahead, Sophos and TD Synnex will provide all the necessary cybersecurity needs pertinent to every school district.
The Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program will provide up to $200 million to selected participants over a three-year term to purchase a wide variety of cybersecurity services and equipment.
Modeled after the FCC’s Connected Care Pilot, the Pilot Program will evaluate the effectiveness of using Universal Service funding to support cybersecurity services and equipment to protect school and library broadband networks and data in order.
Eligibility for the Pilot Program
Schools, libraries and consortia of schools and libraries are eligible to apply for this program.
Cybersecurity Pilot Program Details
Official link to the program
The FCC has funded the pilot program with $200,000,000.00 over a three year period. The program will be Administered by USAC. The application opens on September 17, 2024 and closes on Nov 1, 2024 .
Pilot Program participants will be eligible to seek reimbursement for a wide variety of cybersecurity services and equipment, subject to an overall cap. Eligible services and equipment include:
Advanced/Next Generation Firewalls; Endpoint Protection; Identity Protection and Authentication and Monitoring, Detection, and Response as well as cybersecurity awareness training.
Why is this program important?
Even with existing cybersecurity measures in place, school districts still face significant financial risks from cyberattacks, with annual losses potentially reaching between $50,000 and $1 million.
The Problems faced by K-12 Schools
Schools have sufficient cybersecurity tools but lack the resources to monitor them effectively. Cyber Insurance requires constant monitoring, but in schools, who is doing that? And many suspicious alerts go unnoticed!
Understaffed IT departments in educational institutions are often overwhelmed by the demands of supporting teaching and learning. With limited security expertise, they struggle to protect a diverse range of sensitive data across various devices and locations. Ensuring adequate 24/7 security coverage would require a team of six to eight dedicated staff members to account for holidays, nights, weekends, and sick days. This level of staffing is often unattainable for many schools.
The Process:
- Mandatory 30 minute discovery call ASAP.
- Step Ahead will do a 30 minute presentation of the program during the discovery call.
- Once the School District agrees to participate in the program, the school district will be required to nominate a POC to represent the school district in the application process.
- Step Ahead will guide the POC in the application process.
- Once awarded, the School District will be directly notified of the award by FCC.
- The School District will engage with Step Ahead in Cybersecurity Pilot Program fulfillment.
Benefit for the School District:
Fully funded cybersecurity in place as per the needs of the school district by FCC (FederalCommunications Commissions). Even if you already have cybersecurity, what is implemented in this Cybersecurity Pilot Program will complement and enhance existing cybersecurity in place for the school district.