Calibrated for K-12 districts, higher education, and the FERPA-driven cybersecurity environment

Book a Cybersecurity Speaker for Education

Education audiences expect a cybersecurity keynote speaker who can navigate the specific regulatory and operational environment that K-12 districts, community colleges, and universities operate under. FERPA student record protection. CIPA content filtering requirements. COPPA for children under 13. The third-party risk environment that tightened materially after MOVEit and after PowerSchool. The cyber insurance market for education organizations, which has hardened more aggressively than most sectors. And the resource-constrained reality of district IT and security teams operating with budgets significantly below enterprise norms. Mark Lynd is the cybersecurity speaker who has invested directly in the K-12 education mission. Author of Cybersecurity Life Skills for Teens, used in K-12 cybersecurity and digital literacy programs nationwide. 5x CIO/CISO with direct K-12 and higher education advisory experience. Currently Head of Executive Advisory and Strategy at Netsync, advising education CIOs, CISOs, superintendents, university presidents, and boards on AI and cybersecurity. Thinkers360 Top 10 global rankings across five disciplines simultaneously. The content Mark delivers for education audiences covers what is moving fastest. The K-12 ransomware threat environment that has targeted districts at scale and the specific response framework smaller districts need. Higher education cybersecurity including research data protection, federally funded research compliance, FERPA student data handling, and the third-party risk environment specific to higher education. AI integration in K-12 and higher education with the FERPA and COPPA compliance requirements that follow. The cyber insurance posture for education organizations that has shifted materially in 2025 and 2026. For K-12 audiences specifically, Mark brings something other speakers do not: he has authored the book that is used in classrooms and library programs in school districts nationwide. The K-12 audience hears the operator frame, the parent frame, and the educator frame in one keynote because Mark has been all three. The audience for education events typically includes some combination of district CIOs and IT directors, university CIOs and CISOs, superintendents and university presidents, board members, technology coordinators, library media specialists, classroom educators, and the IT and security staff who carry the day-to-day operational load. Mark's keynote content adapts to whichever audience configuration the event is bringing to the room. Education subsectors Mark advises and speaks to include K-12 districts of all sizes, charter and private schools, community colleges, four-year colleges and universities, research universities, state higher education systems, and the broader education technology ecosystem. Educational rates apply for all education-sector events. Reach out through the contact form with event date, audience type, education subsector, and any specific topics you want emphasized.

Live on stage · International keynote