As schools continue to adopt digital technologies to augment their educational programs, they’ve become increasingly vulnerable to cyber risks and threats.

Check Point Research shows a rise in cyber attacks on educational facilities across the globe. In Europe, the number of weekly attacks per educational organization increased by 25 percent from July-August 2020 compared to previous months, while in the U.S. the number rose by 30 percent in the same time period.

A Florida school district suffered a ransomware attack in April 2020 that saw fraudsters demand $40 million in ransom, threatening to erase data and post personal information of students and faculty online if they did not receive it. 

While this is an extreme example, attacks are not uncommon anymore.

A report by the FBI and several federal security agencies found that 57 percent of all reported ransomware attacks in August and September of the 2020-2021 school year targeted schools, due in large part to the shift to distance learning and the distribution of district-issued devices to people’s homes.

In addition to ransomware, DDoS attacks, disruption, and harassment on videoconferencing sessions, doxing and malware attacks are plaguing schools, putting the sensitive data they maintain at risk, and impacting resource performance and availability. 

The pandemic has intensified the need to track and maintain an expanding array of IT devices. When distance learning became mandatory, district-issued devices rapidly made their way into the homes of faculty and students, often without the necessary protections in place.

Not only are there many more devices to track, those devices are connecting to the network via unsecured home networks, which may also be tethered to various IoT devices and other connected personal computers and devices that serve as gateways for cybercrime.