"Our Biggest Nightmare Is Here:" Cyberattacks are Targeting School Districts. How Can Schools Respond to Keep Data and Systems Secure?

Autor/in	Belastock, Eileen
Titel	"Our Biggest Nightmare Is Here:" Cyberattacks are Targeting School Districts. How Can Schools Respond to Keep Data and Systems Secure?
Quelle	In: Education Next, 22 (2022) 2, S.44-49 (6 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1539-9664
Schlagwörter	Information Security; Computer Security; Data; Information Technology; School Districts; New York; Massachusetts + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Computervirus; Computersicherheit; Daten; Informationstechnologie; School district; Schulbezirk; Master-Studiengang
Abstract	Of the 17 industries studied by information-security company SecurityScorecard, the education sector ranked as the least secure in 2018, with the highest vulnerabilities present in application security, endpoint security, and keeping software up to date. Online learning, which has increased gradually over the past decade and significantly since March 2020, has only exacerbated the possibility of exposing staff and student data to unauthorized parties. The 2020 calendar year saw a record-breaking number of publicly disclosed school cybersecurity incidents with an 18 percent increase over the 2019 calendar year total and a rate of more than two incidents per school day throughout 2020. These cyberattacks impacted taxpayers, district staff, and students, leading to school closures, millions of dollars stolen, and data breaches linked to identity theft and credit-card fraud. Though these attacks affected only a small fraction of the overall number of schools and districts in the U.S., the frequency may increase as more lucrative targets, like corporations and banks, mount a better defense. School districts' networks are the perfect target for cybercriminals because they house a large amount of personal data but exist in a milieu not necessarily attuned to the threat of attack. While hackers' individual motivations run the gamut, most of the attacks on school districts have been tied to cybercriminals looking for low-risk, high-return financial payoffs--which embattled district decisionmakers are willing to provide if it means keeping student and staff information private. This article covers how cyberattacks happen, case studies of thwarted ransomware attacks, and what districts can do to protect their data. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Education Next Institute, Inc. Harvard Kennedy School, Taubman 310, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138; Fax: 617-496–4428; e-mail: Education_Next@hks.harvard.edu; Web site: https://www.educationnext.org/the-journal/
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01