Board approves grant‑funded cybersecurity pilot: off‑site SOC and DDoS mitigation services

The Council Bluffs Community School District board approved purchases tied to a grant-funded cybersecurity pilot: an off‑site Security Operations Center (SOC) and DDoS (distributed denial of service) mitigation through Cox Business, staff said.

John Stiles (presenter not present; staff reported) explained the two services are complementary: the SOC monitors logs and hunts for internal or external threats on the district network, while the DDoS mitigation service sits at the service‑provider level to filter malicious traffic and ensure continuity of external access. Staff said the grant covers the services (described in the presentation as 100% funded) and therefore poses no immediate cost to the district.

Board members asked whether the services overlap with existing Google Cloud protections and how quickly DDoS mitigation would activate. Staff responded the solutions operate at different layers: the DDoS mitigation cleans traffic at the provider edge (staff said mitigation reacts in under a minute in the presentation) and the SOC analyzes event logs and alerts. The district described the pilot as a 3‑year arrangement and noted thresholds for mitigation are configurable when the service is set up.

Staff said the board’s action authorizes acceptance of the grant‑funded services and that the pilot will inform whether similar protections should be adopted more broadly and how they might integrate with E‑Rate funding. The motion carried by roll call.