US CISA Releases Toolkit for Anonymous School Threats

The United States’ cyber defense agency published guidance for kindergarten through grade 12 schools Wednesday to help address anonymous threats of violence, as experts warn the nation’s school systems are vulnerable to increasing cyberattacks and physical security risks.

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The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released the anonymized threat response toolkit while kicking off a two-day summit on K-12 school safety and security. The guidance includes key strategies to address anonymized threats, such as further developing partnership structures with intelligence organizations and the FBI, as well as improving reporting processes to detect and deter threats at an early stage.

CISA Director Jen Easterly warned that U.S. schools are facing “a scourge of anonymous threats of violence” as the school year begins, with districts receiving threats through emails, social media, phone calls and even messages scrawled on school walls. The guidance also says recent highly publicized mass shootings targeting schools “often prompt an onslaught of so-called copycat threats of more violence.”

The toolkit includes research on social media-based anonymous threats targeting K-12 schools and highlights trends such as swatting, where prank callers falsely report serious incidents to trigger a large-scale law enforcement response. Computer-generated calls can allow criminals to harass schools and other targets with a deluge of swatting calls.

Early detection software can improve security by monitoring school Wi-Fi networks and scanning student activity on school devices, but CISA warns these tools are often inadequate for identifying threats and raise significant privacy concerns.

CISA urges schools to develop a multidisciplinary threat assessment team when addressing anonymous threats, including a school administrator, school-based law enforcement representative and a school counselor or mental health professional “at a minimum.” The agency also encouraged schools to balance campus security with certain response actions, saying “full lockdowns or an increased police presence can be traumatizing for some students” and that “schools should consider the intensity and overtness of their response.”

“Families, students and educators should not have to question whether they’re safe when they walk into a classroom,” Robert Contee, FBI office of partner engagement assistant director, said in a statement. “The more parents, teachers and administrators know, the more likely we are to keep our kids safe.”

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas described the new guidance as a “first of its kind” toolkit aimed at providing school systems with additional resources “in this heightened and particularly demanding modern-day threat environment.”

The final recommendation included in the toolkit involves establishing a response protocol to address threat situations and conduct age-appropriate drills and training exercises to help prepare for responding to threats.

“Establish protocols for communicating with families, and make sure the resources are in place to address the impacts of a threat,” the guidance states.