ATLE Convergence 2024

Dive into the world of incident response with "Backdoors and Breaches," an engaging card game designed to teach and enhance your cybersecurity skills. This session will explore real-world attack scenarios and response strategies through interactive gameplay. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned pro, join us to learn effective tactics for identifying and mitigating security threats while having fun. Plus, attend for a chance to win your own set of "Backdoors and Breaches" cards, courtesy of Black Hills Information Security.

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, the challenges in cybersecurity are becoming increasingly complex and daunting. As threats grow more sophisticated, the need for robust security governance and leadership has never been more critical. Prepare yourself for an unparalleled security leadership session! Curtis Blais, the Shared CISO for Cybera, Alberta’s not-for-profit Research & Education Network facilitator, will draw from his extensive 35+ years of experience in IT and IT security to highlight the four essential areas you must focus on to make your cybersecurity program effective. Drawing insights from his upcoming book, Curtis will offer a practical, no-nonsense approach to formalizing your security program. No AI gimmicks, no flashy distractions, and no jargon — just straightforward, proven, real-world advice.

ATC - New plugin that allows you to create an Assignable Time Calculator for your teachers. This is created within Powerschool - SIS and would be done by your principals and managed through your HR. In the past, if you have used the excel spreadsheets, this will replace those spreadsheets.

Powerschools new UI has a basic header within the student pages. We have created a new look. We would go over the new look and if you want the change, we can help add to your SIS

Elasticsearch is the distributed search and analytics engine at the heart of the Elastic stack. Learn how Edmonton Public Schools has set up an elasticseach cluster to index, search, create dashboards and alert on a variety of data types. We will show how to use the free features in elasticsearch in order to centralize logging and add insight into your network data.

Dark Web threats pose a critical concern for K-12 institutions. With vast stores of sensitive data, schools stand as enticing targets for bad actors both big and small.

This interactive talk led by Kevin Paul, Director of Cybersecurity Operations at Cybera (who brings a rich background in law enforcement and combating cybercrime) will provide an overview of the current cyber threat landscape specific to K-12 education, particularly focus on the Dark Web. Covering a broad spectrum of cyber threats — from ransomware and phishing, to advanced persistent threats — the session will emphasize the critical need for enhanced cybersecurity measures, including monitoring of the Dark Web.

Drawing from his extensive experiences, the presenter will use real-world examples of cyber incidents. He will reveal the nature and serious consequences of these threats, including financial loss, reputational damage, and disruption to education operations. Each example will dissect the attack vectors employed, the collaborative response efforts initiated, and the pivotal lessons learned.

Finally, the session will highlight the vital role of cooperation between IT departments and law enforcement agencies, and the importance of collaboration with other schools and community partners. Open communication and strategic alignment are vital to pre-empting and responding to cyber incidents.

Explore Black Gold School Division's journey in SDWAN as an alternative to supernet bandwidth increases. What is it? What advantages does it provide? What are some of the challenges? Does it work?

The "End of Year" Process can honestly be considered to start as early as December in many cases. Planning for, and managing, the transition of student information from one year to the next is a months long process that touches on multiple disciplines. This session will explore this process through several different lenses, all tracking the decisions and processes which successfully move a student's record through the end of year process.