USCA and school district sign cybersecurity agreement
USCA and school district sign cybersecurity agreement
Publish Date: 2026-02-24 05:45:00
Source Domain: www.postandcourier.com
Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. AIKEN — According to the Aiken County Public School District’s Executive Director of Technology Nic Carroll, his department works to keep the district’s network safe, secure and reliable as it faces tens of thousands of cybersecurity threats every day. Now, the local school system is gaining extra support in defending its networks through an agreement with USC Aiken’s Regional Security Operations Center (RSOC), a student-led department that offers near round-the-clock monitoring against cyberattacks.
Carroll said the agreement, which was signed on Feb. 23, will help bolster the school district’s already active cybersecurity presence while giving USCA students a chance to engage in learning with real-world consequences.
“For us, it helps lessen the load on our internal technology group… but then it allows the [USCA] students the opportunity to learn what it is like to be a cyber analyst in a constantly evolving and changing environment on a day-to-day basis,’’ he said. USCA cybersecurity major Jacob Epps currently works with RSOC as a cyber analyst and explained that the role of the center is to investigate security alerts using monitoring tools.
“When we investigate alerts, we work to understand what caused it, decide whether it’s a real concern and then provide next steps,” he said. “It’s our job to look deeper and determine whether it needs to be addressed or is a harmless anomaly.”
ACPSD Superintendent Corey Murphy said that keeping up with cybersecurity across the district and the over 23,000 students it serves is “not optional.”“The RSOC will serve as a neutral and trusted third-party partner, helping monitor our district’s network environment,” he said. “That internal monitoring strengthens our security posture and allows us to better defend against threat actors while ensuring that our data and critical systems remain safe, secure and reliable.”
S.C. Sen. Tom Young, R-Aiken, was present for the signing of the agreement, where he shared that the Aiken County Legislative Delegation wrote to Gov. Henry McMaster in early January to request that the RSOC be designated as a formal state cybersecurity asset and a model for regional workforce development and cybersecurity.
Young has been advised that currently the request is being reviewed and a decision is hoped to be announced “any day now.”“We are very optimistic that we will hear from the governor very soon, and hopefully we’ll have good news… that designation — should we be able to achieve it — will strengthen interagency collaboration, amplify the state’s cyber defense capabilities and reinforce South Carolina’s commitment to safeguarding its digital infrastructure,” he said.
