Newsletter · October 2, 2026
Four lost school days, and a patch that cannot wait
Don't make it easy for them
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and the National Cybersecurity Alliance picked a theme that fits a school IT shop well: Don't Make It Easy for Them. This issue is about what "easy" looks like in practice, from a district rewriting its calendar to a remote access gateway attackers reached before the patch did.
If anything here sparks a question, we are a conversation away.
Trail Ahead
One attack, four lost days, and a winter break rewrite
A cyberattack closed Springfield Public Schools in Massachusetts, a district of 66 schools and about 27,000 students, for four days. Classes resumed Monday, September 14. The district has since said the FBI confirmed a breach that appears to include student and staff data, possibly staff Social Security numbers. Last week the school committee approved a revised calendar that makes up the time in late December and early January.
Read the breach report at Insurance Journal and the calendar update at Western Mass News.
Pine Cove connection: The ransom question gets the headlines. The days are what a community remembers, and Springfield is now paying them back around winter break. Districts that recover fast have off-site backups they have actually restored from and a written plan for running school while the network is down. If you have not tested either since spring, October is a good month to do it. If you need an assessment of where you stand on data backup and disaster recovery, reach out to us today.
🌲 Quick Bytes: Must-Read Articles
Two Citrix NetScaler zero-days are being exploited worldwide
On September 27, CISA warned that attackers are actively exploiting CVE-2026-88771 and CVE-2026-88772 in Citrix NetScaler ADC and Gateway. Both are rated CVSS 9.5 and can lead to remote code execution, and the first lets an unauthenticated attacker run commands on any NetScaler ADC or Gateway deployment. Federal agencies have until September 30 to patch.
Read the details at The Hacker News
Pine Cove connection: NetScaler is how many staff and vendors reach internal apps from off site. If you run one, move to the fixed builds now and check for signs of compromise, because these were exploited before anyone had a patch.
Gemini study notebooks just reached school accounts
Google began rolling out study notebooks in Gemini to school and work accounts on September 17, starting with Rapid Release domains. Students and staff get it if the Gemini app and Gemini Notebook are already turned on for them. Admins control it by group or organizational unit, and there is no end-user setting.
Read the update from Google Workspace
Pine Cove connection: This is how AI shows up in schools now: new features riding in on settings you already approved. Ten minutes in the admin console tells you whether this matches your board's AI policy.
Fairfax County banned license plate readers at its schools
On September 24, the Fairfax County School Board voted unanimously to prohibit installing, buying or leasing automatic license plate reader systems on school property. The district has none today, and its regular cameras are not AI-powered and keep video for up to 30 days. Speed and bus stop-arm cameras are still allowed.
Read the story at NBC4 Washington
Pine Cove connection: Expect camera questions at your own board meetings. The districts that handle them well can say exactly what their cameras capture, how long footage is kept, and who can see it. Modern platforms let you set those rules, such as retention periods, role-based access, audit logs of who viewed what, and features you can turn off entirely. If your answers aren't written down yet, we can help you write them.
🌲 Partner Pulse: News From the Brands We Build On
1,700 access points, swapped before first period
A new RUCKUS blog with Butler University network and security engineer Nick Northcutt walks through replacing more than 1,700 access points with virtually no disruption. Butler's facilities team started installs at 3:00 a.m. and could finish a whole building before 8:00 a.m. classes, and the new design moved access points out of hallways and into the rooms where people live and study.
Pine Cove connection: That is how we like to run a refresh too: early starts, one building at a time, designed around where the devices really are. If your access points still live in the hallways, ask us what a walkthrough would find.
Pine Cove Corner
Attackers do not need a clever plan when an unpatched gateway or an untested backup will do. That is what this month's theme is really about. None of the fixes above are glamorous: a patch window, a restore test, a written camera policy, a look at the admin console. They are simply the difference between hard and easy. Pathfinder 360 is how we help you find which ones are still open.
Schedule your Pathfinder 360 call at pinecc.com
Stay Connected Beyond the Trail Report
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- The Pine Cove Team
