Beyond Passwords: Building a Phishing-Resistant Authentication Strategy for K-12 Districts

Phishing, account takeover and ransomware are among the most damaging threats facing K-12 districts, yet many school accounts are still protected by little more than a username and password. This hands-on, two-hour workshop gives IT leaders and technology coordinators a practical framework for designing and launching a multi-factor authentication strategy that works for everyone, from kindergartners to administrators. Grounded in Zero Trust principles and aligned with NIST, CISA and CIS frameworks, it follows a three-phase Prepare, Evaluate, Implement approach. Explore authentication methods from SMS codes and push notifications to phishing-resistant passkeys and biometrics, and learn to match them to user groups by role, age, device type, risk level and accessibility needs. Using a User Group Registry, Authentication Strategy Playbook, phased Adoption Plan and RACI-based stakeholder model, you will begin mapping a rollout that starts with high-privilege accounts and IT staff and scales districtwide while addressing equity, usability and buy-in. No prior MFA experience is required. All workshops are BYOD and require All Access or Session + Registration to attend.