School is back in session across North Georgia and Metro Atlanta, which means the usual scramble — supply lists, schedules, carpool logistics — is in full swing. But there's a category of back-to-school prep that gets a lot less attention than notebooks and backpacks: the technology your kids are carrying, and the scams that specifically target parents this time of year.
This isn't generic advice about "internet safety." It's a practical rundown of what's actually happening right now, and what you can do about it before it becomes a problem.
The Scam Trend Worth Knowing About: AI-Written Impersonation
The biggest shift this year isn't a new type of scam — it's how convincing the old ones have become. Security researchers and school districts are flagging a rise in messages written to look exactly like they came from a teacher, coach, or school administrator, generated with AI tools that make the tone, formatting, and urgency feel completely legitimate. No more awkward phrasing or obvious red flags. These messages often ask for a quick payment, a gift card, or a click on a "permission slip" or "fee" link, and they lean hard on urgency to keep you from stopping to verify.
A few habits go a long way here:
- Check the actual sender address, not just the display name. A message can show "Ms. Johnson" as the sender while the underlying email address is completely unrelated to the school.
- Hover before you click. A link can be labeled with a familiar school URL while actually pointing somewhere else entirely.
- Be suspicious of urgency and unusual payment requests. Legitimate school payments rarely come through gift cards, wire transfers, or "send it right now before the deadline" messages.
- Verify through a second channel. If something feels off, a quick call to the school office or a message through the district's official parent portal settles it in under a minute.
This same principle extends to your kids. Since students are increasingly using school-issued devices at home, parents have effectively become part of the school's network from a security standpoint. It's worth having a plain conversation with older kids about the same red flags — a message that seems to be from a teacher, coach, or friend but is asking for something unusual is worth a second look before acting on it.
Watch for Back-to-School Shopping Scams Too
Between supply lists, school registration fees, and fundraiser requests, this is a season where a lot of legitimate-looking payment requests land in your inbox and texts — which makes it easy for a fake one to blend right in. Fake fundraiser pages, "too good to be true" deals on school supplies or electronics, and scholarship or student job scams targeting older teens all tend to spike this time of year. The same verification habit applies: confirm through the school's actual website or office before paying for anything unfamiliar.
Device Readiness: The Non-Cybersecurity Half of Back-to-School Prep
Beyond the scam awareness, a little device housekeeping now saves a lot of headaches once the school year is in full swing.
- Update everything. Laptops, tablets, and phones that sat mostly idle over the summer are often behind on operating system and app updates — and outdated software is one of the easiest ways in for malware.
- Set up or confirm strong, unique passwords. For younger kids, a memorable passphrase is far more effective than a short complex password they'll forget or write down somewhere insecure.
- Turn on multi-factor authentication wherever it's supported — school accounts, email, and any learning platforms the district uses. It's the single highest-impact step for protecting an account, for a student or an adult.
- Check what's shared on a family device. If a laptop or tablet gets passed between siblings or used by multiple family members, make sure logins and personal accounts aren't left open across users.
- Back up anything that matters before a device heads back into daily use — especially for older students working on laptops for assignments and projects all year.
The Bottom Line
None of this requires becoming a security expert overnight. It's mostly a matter of building the habit of pausing before you click, verifying through a second channel when something feels off, and doing a quick device check now rather than after something goes wrong. A few minutes this week beats a scramble in October.
And if this is the kind of thing you'd rather have a professional handle for your business — employee security awareness, email protections, or making sure your team's devices are actually update-current — that's exactly the work I do for small and mid-size businesses across Metro Atlanta and North Georgia every day.