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New semester. New faces. New vulnerabilities.
As your school ramps back up, so do cyber threats. Students are arriving with every phone, laptop, tablet, and smart alarm clock imaginable, and threat actors know it! It's time to double-check your defenses, review your risks, and ensure students, faculty, and staff are well-equipped to think before they click. Here is a quick, back-to-school list to review with your IT team:
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Conduct a risk assessment.
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Regularly update hardware and patch software.
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Check in with third-party service providers to manage risk and ensure compliance.
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Exercise your Incident Response Plan.
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Test back-up strategies.
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Promote cyber industry best practices.
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It's Phishing Season—and AI has Brought the Bait
Did you know hackers have a back-to-school list too? And AI Phishing is at the top! As artificial intelligence evolves, so do the scams. For threat actors, fall marks the peak of phishing season as students and faculty grow acquainted with new course loads. This year, hackers are harnessing the power of AI tools to create phishing attempts that can mimic tone, personalize language, and generate far more convincing content. Combat the new wave of phishing and keep your school one step ahead of AI-powered threats.
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Modernize your phishing simulations. Match the updated phishing style: smarter, cleaner, sharper.
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Create a clear reporting channel. Utilize built-in reporting tools, make sure students, faculty, and staff know where and how to report phishing attempts, and establish a timely process to acknowledge the receipt of reported phishing attempts.
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To keep it secure, keep it consistent. Keep messages from your school consistent in format and tone—that way, scam attempts will look like a 'phish' out of water.
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5 Ways to Keep Student Devices from Threatening Your Network
When it comes to school campuses, devices tend to arrive on a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) basis. As thousands of unmanaged gadgets flood the network, it can be difficult to detect suspicious activity or enforce protocol. From outdated software to recycled credentials, threat actors have identified student devices as launchpads for institutional attacks. Since the threat of BYOD isn't going away, neither is the need for awareness and digital hygiene.
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Only allow student devices to access what they need to reach—not everything on the network.
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Require multi-factor authentication (MFA).
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Monitor your networks to detect unauthorized access and malware.
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Collaborate with student leaders—partner with campus groups to promote best practices.
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Offer easy-to-access cyber resources with quick guides on device updates, suspicious email reporting, and account security.
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CVE-2025-49706 Microsoft SharePoint Improper Authentication Vulnerability
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CVE-2025-53770 Microsoft SharePoint Deserialization of Untrusted Data Vulnerability
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CVE-2023-2533 PaperCut NG/MF Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) Vulnerability
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Upcoming Events
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Feedback or suggestions?
Email FSASchoolCyberSafety@ed.gov your recommendations for what to include in upcoming newsletters.
Please forward our newsletter to team members and colleagues who may find these cybersecurity tips useful.
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