{"id":34163,"date":"2024-10-03T06:25:54","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T19:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/34163\/"},"modified":"2024-10-03T06:25:54","modified_gmt":"2024-10-02T19:25:54","slug":"how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/34163\/","title":{"rendered":"School and cyberthreats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A very troubling trend in recent years has been the rising number of cyberattacks targeting educational institutions. The United States, for instance, has seen school education become <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/frederickhess\/2023\/09\/20\/the-top-target-for-ransomware-its-now-k-12-schools\/?sh=549034c6563f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">one of the most targeted sectors<\/a>. According to the UK\u2019s Information Commissioner\u2019s Office (ICO), the number of attacks on schools <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c2vwz4exq4xo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">increased by 55%<\/a> from 2022 to 2023. A similar pattern is emerging <a href=\"https:\/\/assets.sophos.com\/X24WTUEQ\/at\/j74v496cfwh4qsvgqhs4pmw\/sophos-state-of-ransomware-education-2023-wp.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">globally<\/a>. Let\u2019s unpick what\u2019s going on here, and look at the ways schools can defend themselves.<\/p>\n<h2>Why cybercriminals love school<\/h2>\n<p>Several factors contribute to the growing vulnerability of schools, making them attractive targets for cybercriminals:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Dependence on technology.<\/strong> Educational institutions are rapidly becoming digital and are thus reliant on IT infrastructure both in the classroom and in schools\u2019 administration offices. However, their cybersecurity practices are often sadly lacking.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Valuable data.<\/strong> Schools store a wealth of sensitive information, including student and staff data, and financial records. Data breaches can have devastating consequences, and this data is exactly what attackers are after.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Scarce resources.<\/strong> Schools often face tight budgets and a shortage of qualified IT professionals \u2014 especially in cybersecurity.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Low user awareness.<\/strong> A great many computer users in schools have little cybersecurity nous. This means they\u2019re susceptible to phishing attacks, malware infections, and other cyberthreats. Often, teachers aren\u2019t much more cyber-savvy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This all turns educational institutions into sitting ducks. What\u2019s more, successful attacks attract plenty \u00a0of public attention, which gives cybercriminals leverage \u2014 particularly in ransom negotiations following a ransomware attack. The essential nature and social importance of educational institutions also play a significant role.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, if a ransomware attack temporarily shuts a retail chain down, it\u2019s unpleasant \u2014 but mostly just for the business itself; customers can generally go elsewhere quite easily. However, if a cyberattack disrupts a school, the consequences are far more serious. Students lose access to education, their academic performance suffers, and parents get landed with arranging childcare and other headaches.<\/p>\n<h2>Cyberattacks on educational institutions<\/h2>\n<p>Attacks on education are now so common that you don\u2019t have to look far for examples of even large-scale incidents \u2014 just look at recent headlines. Not so long ago, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bleepingcomputer.com\/news\/security\/highline-public-schools-closes-schools-following-cyberattack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">cyberattack<\/a> targeted Highline Public Schools, a school district in Washington state in the US. The incident forced the district to temporarily close all 34 of its schools \u2014 affecting over 17,000 students. All educational activities, including athletics and meetings, were suspended.<\/p>\n<p>In August of this year, the Singapore Ministry of Education announced that an unknown hacker had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bleepingcomputer.com\/news\/security\/hacker-wipes-13-000-devices-after-breaching-classroom-management-platform\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wiped clean 13,000 iPads and Chromebooks<\/a> used by students across the country.<\/p>\n<p>In June, the Toronto District School Board, which oversees nearly 600 schools in Canada\u2019s largest city, was hit by a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bleepingcomputer.com\/news\/security\/toronto-district-school-board-hit-by-a-ransomware-attack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ransomware attack<\/a>. In May, Western Sydney University, one of Australia\u2019s largest universities with over 35,000 students, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bleepingcomputer.com\/news\/security\/western-sydney-university-data-breach-exposed-student-data\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">reported a hack<\/a> on its IT infrastructure.<\/p>\n<h2>How to protect schools from cyberattacks<\/h2>\n<p>With the education sector firmly in the crosshairs of cybercriminals, schools\u2019 IT systems need robust protection.<\/p>\n<p>So how to get it? While large schools, colleges, and universities can allocate substantial budgets for enterprise-grade software and dedicated cybersecurity staff, smaller schools often lack these resources.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, these schools sometimes resort to using security software intended for home use. However, this isn\u2019t ideal. Such products aren\u2019t designed for centralized management, so deploying them across numerous school computers, let alone managing them effectively, can become a major headache.<\/p>\n<p>A far better solution for small schools would be a product designed for small and medium businesses (SMB), such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/advert\/small-business-security\/small-office-security?icid=au_ksoskd_acq_ona_smm__onl_b2b_kasperskydaily_banner____ksos___\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kaspersky Small Office Security<\/a>. Such security software offers all the essential features needed for basic security:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reliable protection against ransomware and other malware<\/li>\n<li>Automatic backups<\/li>\n<li>Password manager to protect accounts<\/li>\n<li>Vulnerability scanning and much more<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Furthermore, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/advert\/small-business-security\/small-office-security?icid=au_ksoskd_acq_ona_smm__onl_b2b_kasperskydaily_banner____ksos___\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SMB security solutions<\/a> is easy to deploy, and it can operate on an \u201cinstall and forget\u201d basis \u2014 no dedicated IT or security specialist is required for setup and management.<\/p>\n<p>To strengthen school cybersecurity further, we also recommend conducting staff training to raise awareness of cyberthreats. This is easy to set up with our <a href=\"https:\/\/k-asap.com\/en\/?icid=au_kdailyplacehold_acq_ona_smm__onl_b2b_kasperskydaily_wpplaceholder____kasap___\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kaspersky Automated Security Awareness Platform<\/a>, which helps slash both the time and cost of training.<\/p>\n<input type=\"hidden\" class=\"category_for_banner\" value=\"ksos-generic\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why cybersecurity in education is critical, and how to protect schools from attacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2706,"featured_media":34164,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1999,2994],"tags":[346,192,3138,2058,422,131,1795],"class_list":{"0":"post-34163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"category-smb","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-protection","11":"tag-school","12":"tag-small-office-security","13":"tag-threats","14":"tag-tips","15":"tag-training"},"hreflang":[{"hreflang":"en-au","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/34163\/"},{"hreflang":"en-in","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.in\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/28087\/"},{"hreflang":"en-ae","url":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/23348\/"},{"hreflang":"ar","url":"https:\/\/me.kaspersky.com\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/12099\/"},{"hreflang":"en-gb","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/28240\/"},{"hreflang":"es-mx","url":"https:\/\/latam.kaspersky.com\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/27750\/"},{"hreflang":"es","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.es\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/30482\/"},{"hreflang":"it","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.it\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/29235\/"},{"hreflang":"tr","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.tr\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/12870\/"},{"hreflang":"x-default","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/52262\/"},{"hreflang":"fr","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.fr\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/22288\/"},{"hreflang":"pt-br","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.br\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/23046\/"},{"hreflang":"de","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.de\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/31698\/"},{"hreflang":"ja","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.co.jp\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/37309\/"},{"hreflang":"en-za","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/how-to-protect-schools-from-cyberthreats\/33817\/"}],"acf":[],"banners":"","maintag":{"url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/tag\/school\/","name":"school"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2706"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}