How The Federal Government Can Help Schools And Libraries Prevent Cyberattacks
Fortinet News, Thursday, February 29th, 2024
School districts and libraries nationwide have increasingly been victims of sophisticated cyberattacks by criminals who find the educational sector more vulnerable than commercial entities. Schools and libraries do not have large IT staff and only have modest budgets to protect their networks.
Cybercriminals seek to shut down the IT network and seize sensitive data about the students, faculty, and staff that may find its way to the dark web. Cybercriminals sometimes demand a hefty ransom from the school district or library to return the network to an operational state instead of selling the sensitive data to criminals who would exploit it.
Attacks on schools can disrupt critical educational instruction, transportation between school and home, employee payroll, and school-provided meal access. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that in 2021, 647,000 K-12 students were affected by ransomware attacks, and the resulting costs to the school districts due to these attacks were estimated at $2.38 billion. K-12 Security Information Exchange estimates that more than 1,330 publicly disclosed attacks have occurred since 2016.