Security News > 2020 > December > U.S. warns of increased cyberattacks against K-12 distance learning
Ransomware attacks in the education sector have increased at the beginning of the school year, with cybercriminals stealing data and threatening to leak it unless the ransom was paid.
The three U.S. agencies say that the reason behind the increased incidence of these attacks is the availability of DDoS-for-hire services that enable "Any motivated malicious cyber actor conduct disruptive attacks regardless of experience level."
The FBI, CISA, and MS-ISAC also highlight risks related to social engineering carried through phishing, domain typosquatting, against students, parents, faculty, IT personnel, or other people involved in distance learning.
Defending against most attacks requires little effort.
The government alert provides a comprehensive set of actions that K-12 educational institutions should take, along with Snort signatures that CISA created to detect and protect against attacks with observed malware; the rules should complement other defense methods.