Surviving a School District Cyberattack with Sandra Paul

Welcome to Season 2 Episode 4 of the Zero Breach Zone, where hosts Phil Hintz and Andy Lombardo sit down with the people on the front lines of K-12 cybersecurity. This week they're joined by Sandra Paul, a seasoned K-12 technology leader who takes us inside a real cyberattack on her school district. What happened, how her team responded, and what she'd do differently. Sandra brings hard-won, practical experience to a conversation every school IT leader needs to hear.

She walks through the full arc of a live incident, from the moment the breach was discovered to the critical role of cyber insurance, legal counsel, and vendor relationships in getting through it. Her core message is one the whole field keeps coming back to — it's not a matter of if, but when. Schools that survive are the ones who prepared before the crisis hit.

Key Takeaways:

• Have an incident response plan and test it regularly with tabletop exercises
• Get to know your cyber insurance provider and legal team before you ever need them
• Strong vendor and partner relationships are a critical part of your defense
• Communication during a crisis is just as important as the technical response

Parting Tool: 

• Canva for presentations 
• Notebook LM for writing assistance

Resources Mentioned: 

• NIST Cybersecurity Framework 
• CoSN (Consortium for School Networking)
• Sophos Security Solutions 
• NJ Edge