From Classrooms to Cyberattacks: How Schools Became Prime Targets Post-COVID | Sandra Sexton, Hondo ISD
Beyond The Signal
🎙 From Classrooms to Cyberattacks: How Schools Became Prime Targets Post-COVID | Sandra Sexton, Hondo ISD
In this episode of Beyond the Signal, we sit down with Sandra Sexton, Director of IT at Hondo ISD, to unpack the evolving cybersecurity threats facing K–12 schools in a post-COVID world. With classrooms transformed by remote learning and devices multiplying across campuses, cyber risk has surged—yet resources haven't kept pace.
🔒 What you'll learn in this episode:
- How pandemic-era tech adoption exposed new vulnerabilities
- Why schools are now high-value targets for cybercriminals
- The unexpected cost of free software and "remote learning on demand"
- Creative strategies to translate compliance into outcomes educators care about
- What cyber insurance is now demanding—and how it reshapes roadmaps
- How smaller IT teams are fighting alert fatigue with smart workflows
- What really keeps IT leaders up at night in today’s school ecosystems
💡 Plus: Sandra shares real incident case studies, her advice for other K–12 IT leaders, and what she'd tell her 2020 self about the future of cybersecurity and education.
👉 If you're in K–12 leadership, cybersecurity, or edtech—this is one episode you can’t afford to miss.
🔔 Subscribe for more expert conversations at the intersection of security and strategy.
#K12Cybersecurity #EdTech #RemoteLearning #CyberRisk #SchoolIT #SandraSexton #BeyondTheSignal #GradientCyber
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