A new initiative in New Mexico, called the Statewide Education Network, aims to connect public schools through a broadband network to boost student learning and cybersecurity. The network, which is being implemented in phases, allows students to share resources and information and to access educational websites. It also aims to reduce cybersecurity risks through monitoring and tools to minimize the impact of distributed denial of service attacks — a type of cybercrime that overwhelms a server, network or site with malicious traffic to keep users offline. The initiative has $500,000 in backing from the Federal Communications Commission’s E-rate program. Albuquerque is one of the first school districts in the state to participate, according to an August announcement from New Mexico’s Office of Broadband Access and Expansion.