Schools and colleges could become big ransomware targets for attackers looking to exploit the sudden surge in distance learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Between Jan. 1 and April 8, at least 17 school districts and colleges — comprising 284 entities — were hit by ransomware attacks. That was more than double the total of eight school districts and colleges that were hit in similar attacks during the same period last year, security vendor Armor said in a report this week.
All but one of the attacks happened before individual states began implementing stay-at-home orders in the second half of March. So, at least this far, the attacks have not been pandemic-related. But that could change soon, says Chris Hinkley, head of the Counter Threat Unit (CTU) research team at Armor.
"There is a very strong possibility that the [ransomware] attacks against schools and colleges will increase," Hinkley says.
Attackers know that academic institutions cannot fall back to teaching students in person and therefore are more likely to be pressured into paying a ransom to regain access to their systems. Additionally, IT staff at school districts and colleges are likely going to be overloaded supporting distance-learning measures and are not monitoring their networks as closely as they might have otherwise.
"We do believe that the ransomware threat actors will continue their activity and certainly will not curb it, as this situation gives them an advantage," Hinkley says.
Already this year, educational institutions have been more heavily targeted than organizations in almost any other sector. According to Armor, there have been more attacks on schools and colleges this year ..
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