Why Schools & Students are Lucrative Ransomware Targets?
It makes sense when a large corporation has a breach, like Facebook or Wells Fargo, since these businesses store enormous quantities of data, most of which is instantly useful to hackers. The widespread storage of Social Security numbers, credit card details, and passwords makes it possible to instantaneously access accounts and steal identities. So why do hackers target educational institutions?
Schools may not immediately spring to mind when considering the locations most likely to experience a cyberattack. They remain a prime target for hackers. According to The K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center, cyberattacks on schools quadrupled in 2019 and are increasing yearly. To make things worse, some experts are worried that when school districts transition to distance learning, they may become even more exposed to hackers.
These are the unexpected reasons why hackers target schools, and they also explain why assaults could increase in the future.
Protections for Limited Security
Schools often don’t have a lot of funding set up for cybersecurity despite major expenditures in IT and digital learning technology. Some organizations may not even have a staff person who works only on cybersecurity.
This condition could become worse due to other factors, such as a lack of training. The Consortium for School Networking and Education Week found that 44% of chief technology officers said their district does not provide cybersecurity training to teachers. Schools are now widely susceptible to phishing scams. Almost 20% of schools are reportedly attempting to form a cybersecurity team, according to another research.
Many hackers target schools because there aren’t enough protections, trained cybersecurity experts, or qualified professionals.
Untested, new technology
New technology often offers significant advantages for instructors, such as improved accessibility and access to instructional strategies that support certain learning styles in pupils. The finest technology provider will often collaborate with schools to handle new technology and offer the strongest cyber security. However, not every institution takes advantage of these possibilities, which sometimes leads to subpar security procedures that may turn new technology into a significant security risk.
Many schools are strengthening their security measures, mostly as a result of the rise in assaults over the previous few years. Schools aren’t the only institutions under strain. The need for cyber skills training has increased to the point that businesses like Cybint focus on instructing enterprises on how to enhance cybersecurity.
These businesses are particularly worried about how increasing usage of new technology, such as the move to remote learning solutions brought on by the COVID-19 problem, may make it even more difficult for schools to maintain the security of their networks.
Emails with the.edu suffix
Emails are a useful tool for hackers planning phishing attacks. An email will be more helpful if it is credible and reliable.
Because.edu addresses are frequently regarded as more reliable than .com emails, particularly within school networks, hackers frequently target them. A colleague’s attachment may be quickly downloaded by teachers. They may also stand out in an email inbox full of sender addresses ending in.com or.org because they are a little more uncommon.
Hackers occasionally target educational institutions because obtaining.edu addresses may make it simpler to execute future attacks.
Availability of bigger networks
Due to their extensive computer network infrastructure, educational institutions are more vulnerable to attack than, say, a typical small business. Given the increased opportunities, hackers frequently target educational institutions to access private information (even if they do not host it locally) or gain access to something much larger, like a government portal that students may have access to via the institution.
When you’re dealing with hundreds, and occasionally thousands, of students, it’s much harder to keep a close eye on every account. As a result, it’s less difficult for hackers to set up phony accounts, push a security system to its breaking point, or try to sneak a peek at sensitive information than it would be at a small business.
In summary
Schools may take precautions to protect themselves from these more common cyberattacks. Investment in cybersecurity technologies together with staff and student training would probably provide quick returns. In order to safeguard the technology and promote safety, they might also collaborate with suppliers of new technology, such as remote learning solutions.
Resources
Bug Zero is a bug bounty, crowdsourcing platform for security testing. The platform is the intermediatory entity that enables client organizations to publish their service endpoints so that bug hunters (security researchers / ethical hackers) registered in the platform can start testing the endpoints without any upfront charge. Bug hunters can start testing as soon as a client organization publishes a new program. Bug Zero also offers private bug bounty programs for organizations with high-security requirements.
Bug Zero is available for both hackers and organizations.
For organizations and hackers, register with Bug Zero for free, and let’s make cyberspace safe.
