My home state of Rhode Island may be the smallest in the union, but it has taken on a significant initiative to implement the Protective Domain Name Service (PDNS) in all 64 public school districts. PDNS, an initiative launched by the White House Office of the National Cyber Director, assists K-12 schools with preventing “ransomware and other cyber attacks by preventing computer systems from connecting to harmful websites and other dangerous areas of the internet without the user having to take any action.” Rhode Island is the first state to agree to implement PDNS statewide. Rhode Island public schools serve approximately 136,000 students.

White House National Cyber Director Harry Coker, Jr. announced in Rhode Island on Monday, December 9, 2024, that all 64 school districts across the state pledged to implement PDNS. According to Coker, “Today, Rhode Island is stepping up to lead the way taking advantage of these free federal resources on behalf of every public school district in the state. The partnership at the federal, state and local level exemplify a collaboration committed to keeping students, teachers, administrators and their data safe from evolving cyber threats.”

Rhode Island public schools will use PDNS “with support from the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, operated by the Upstate New York nonprofit Center for Internet Security.”

If interested, schools can sign up for PDNS through service providers, including the Federal government-funded Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, some state governments, and regional Educational Service Agencies.

Rhode Island has taken the initiative to assist all public school districts throughout the state at a time when school districts are getting hammered by cyber attacks. Other states should look at what mighty Little Rhody is doing to assist its schools and use it as an example to start their own statewide program.—Linn Foster Freedman