Cybersecurity educationK-12 Schools Need to Take Cyberattacks More Seriously

By Nir Kshetri

Published 29 April 2021

There has been an uptick of ransomware attacks in which cybercriminals have targeted public schools throughout the United States – from Hartford, Connecticut, to Huntsville, Alabama – since the 2020-21 school year began. Federal cybersecurity officials say the attacks – which involve things that range from the theft of sensitive student data to the disruption of online classes – are expected to continue. As a researcher who specializes in cybercrime and cybersecurity, I know that public schools represent easy and attractive targets for cybercriminals.

Teachers in Baltimore County Public Schools knew something was wrong late in the day on Nov. 24 when they began to experience trouble entering grades into the school district’s computer system. Around the same time, the video for a meeting of the district’s school board abruptly cut off.

Both situations were the result of a cyberattack that had hit all of the school district’s computer networks, disrupting online classes for 115,000 students.

The episode was by no means isolated.

Rather, it was just one of several in an uptick of ransomware attacks in which cybercriminals have targeted public schools throughout the United States – from Hartford, Connecticut, to Huntsville, Alabama – since the 2020-21 school year began.

Federal cybersecurity officials say the attacks – which involve things that range from the theft of sensitive student data to the disruption of online classes – are expected to continue.

As a researcher who specializes in cybercrime and cybersecurity, I know that public schools represent easy and attractive targets for cybercriminals.

Attacks Have Doubled
This vulnerability is in part due to the fact that most schools spend very little on cybersecurity, despite the fact that they need to perform a large amount of file sharing on their networks. They also may be likely to comply with cyberextortionists’ demands because taxpayers and parents expect them to restore networks quickly.

Cyberattacks may not be completely avoidable, but there are steps school system leaders can take to reduce the likelihood that the attacks occur or that sensitive student data is stolen and leaked onto the dark web, as was the case in Fairfax County, Virginia, in October. But first, let’s take a look at the scale and scope of the problem and how dramatically ransomware attacks increased between spring and fall of 2020, both in the United States and globally.

From March until mid-November, cybercriminals attacked U.S. school districts educating over 700,000 students. In the U.S., public K-12 schools represented about 28% of all reported ransomware incidents from January to July. That figure more than doubled, to 57%, for August and September, when K-12 schools began the fall semester.

In Europe from July through August, the number of weekly cyberattacks against the education sector increased by 24%, compared with 9% for all sectors. During that same period, weekly cyberattacks targeting the education sector in Asia increased by 21%, compared with 3.5% against all industries.