School security usually involves things like metal detectors, surveillance cameras and resource officers. However, it has become increasingly important to protect all of the sensitive information they keep in electronic files.

"Because of that, school districts realize they need to spend a little more time and effort on securing their assets and their data," Director of Technology for The Educational Service Center of Eastern Ohio, Andrew Velchek said. 

School districts like Youngstown and Lowellville have invested in stronger cyber security measures for crucial reasons.

"Cyber criminals are trying to harvest student records, they're trying to get into our financial records, get financial information and it happens when you least expect it," Velchek said. 

In one incident in New Mexico, hackers demanded over a million dollars ransom and in the meantime, school officials were unable to take attendance or even track bus routes.

In an effort to prevent cyber attacks the Educational Service Center of Eastern Ohio is partnering with cyber security company, Vinson to make sure sensitive information in Valley schools is not being sold on the dark web.

"We have analysts that go through and scour those identity theft forums for any instance of a school's email address," John LaPlante, Vinson president said

LaPlante says many schools don't report when their school network has been compromised, nor is it a requirement to do so. Vinson tests their vulnerabilities in secret.

"We create these fake email messages and we send them to the schools purporting to be a hacker and we see what the school district will do, and we track who clicks on which message so we can tell the school 'These are some things you should train on, these are some topics you should focus on,' " LaPlante said.