K12 Cybersecurity eBook Ransomware increasingly targets K-12 schools. Are you ready?
When COVID-19 ran rampant in 2020, it compounded cybersecurity issues for K-12 school systems. Schools had to deal with out-of-date computers and old technologies; that wasn’t new. But online learning opened new attack routes into already-challenged networks. And those problems aren’t going away.
School systems have plenty of IT security issues to worry about. Malware outbreaks, DDoS attacks, and other social engineering scams that target schools can and do result in school closures, theft of students’ identities, and millions in stolen taxpayer dollars. But the most urgent danger today is posed by ransomware targeting schools, which is on the rise. Without a modern security strategy, K-12 schools are vulnerable, making up 57% of all ransomware incidents.1
1 National Cyber Awareness System, “Cyber Actors Target K-12 Distance Learning Education to Cause Disruptions and Steal Data,” 2020, http://us-cert.cisa.gov/ncas/alerts/aa20-345a