The six-week filing period to apply to join the federal Schools and Libraries Cybersecurity Pilot Program began in mid-September and will end on November 1st.
A federal pilot program sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission, intends to help schools and libraries pay for cybersecurity work. The application period for funding has opened and awards are meant to help schools or libraries in four major areas: advanced firewalls, endpoint protection, identity protection, and authentication. Additional funds are also able to assist with threat monitoring, detection and response.
To help schools with the application process, the FCC has issued some guidance on how schools and libraries can prepare for the application process, including several administrative prerequisites. There is a total of $200M available through the program and awards are only intended to cover a portion of a participants costs. With data collected from the pilot, officials hope the information will give decision-makers a better sense of how to better serve the urgent cybersecurity needs of educational institutions.
Approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in June, the program’s short-term goal is to fund cybersecurity measures for a select group of K-12 schools and libraries most in need. Long term, the aim is to gather data on the resources necessary to improve cybersecurity in schools and libraries throughout the United States.
The new program will use Universal Service Fund monies, which come from telecommunication fees, to support the purchase of approved cybersecurity measures without cutting into existing E-rate funds. For instance, Maryland received between $20 – 30M in E-rate funding per year from FY2022 through FY2024, and those funds are not intended to be impacted.
“This pilot will provide us with the information necessary to analyze whether and how the commission should update our E-rate program to help schools and libraries help themselves against the ongoing cyber threat,” FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said in a public statement.
