Cyberattacks on K-12 Schools Continue to Multiply
Cyberattacks on K-12 schools continue to proliferate. Both K-12 and higher education institutions are top targets for cybercriminals, with more than 80% of devices (6.3 million) having an encounter in the last 30 days. For school IT leaders, it can be overwhelming to manage, akin to putting your finger in the hole of a damn to hold back floodwaters.
According to Sophos’ 2023 report, the rate of ransomware attacks in education continues to rise. “80% of lower education providers and 79% of higher education providers reported that they were hit by ransomware in the last year, up from 56% and 64%, respectively, in our 2022 survey.”
That is an enormous increase in attacks, and there’s no sign that this pace will slow. Cybercriminals have not only discovered how much data they can extract from schools through their attacks, but also that schools are more likely to pay.
“Schools not only have access to student data and administrative records, they also have a wealth of parent data like Social Security numbers and credit card information. This treasure trove of data has caught the attention of hackers.” - Forbes
Alarming Numbers of School-Related Cyberattacks
According to Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigation Report, the educational services sector experienced 1,780 incidents in 2023, with 1,537 involving confirmed data disclosure. This is a 258% year-over-year increase in the number of incidents and a staggering 545% increase in the amount of data disclosure. Many of these breaches resulted from the National Student Clearinghouse attack that impacted 900 US schools. These numbers make it clear that having a strategy to recover from an attack is critical, but it’s equally important to do everything possible to prevent an attack.
Staying a Step Ahead of Cybercriminals
Even though the FBI and CISA discourage paying ransoms, nearly half of all K-12 schools hit with ransomware paid the ransom because they were under pressure to keep their schools operational. So, detecting and correcting vulnerabilities in your school district’s network – before cyber criminals find them – is essential. An early warning system, such as that provided by Arctic Security, is a powerful tool in helping thwart cybersecurity attacks and reducing the threat.
How Arctic Security’s Early Warning System Helps Schools
Arctic Security’s Early Warning System (EWS) reveals immediate security issues in your organization’s network. Instead of reacting to issues, our EWS helps you proactively address vulnerabilities and address them, using high-quality information from our reports to fix problems before they allow harm.
Arctic EWS handles a variety of threat types, including:
- Compromised systems, such as suspected malware infections
- Known vulnerabilities that are publicly visible and exploitable
- Public exposure of internal resources and interfaces
- Leaked access credentials
We don’t replace your existing security; we add an additional layer of protection to prevent your school from becoming the next cyberattack victim while ensuring you safeguard the personally identifiable information (PII) of your students and staff.
The average cost of deploying Arctic Security’s EWS is a fraction of the cost of paying ransoms and recovering data. To better understand the value of such an investment, you can read an independent analysis of early warning conducted by analysts at TAG Cyber.
