Security News > 2021 > April > High numbers of schools hit by phishing, account compromise and ransomware attacks

Most educational organizations experienced phishing attempts, while 33% were victims of an account compromise attack, and 27% were hit by ransomware in 2020, according to a new report from cybersecurity vendor Netwrix.

Fewer than half of non-education sector organizations experienced the same level of attack.

Of the educational organizations that experienced a ransomware attack, 49% said the attack went unnoticed for days, 19% said hours, and 32% said it took them just minutes to discover the attack.

Over a quarter of organizations said it took days to uncover an account compromise attack, 54% said hours, and 18% said they uncovered attacks in minutes.

About half of the organizations reported that understaffing, a lack of experienced staff, and/or not enough budget made them vulnerable to attacks.

"Because educational institutions are understaffed and lack funding for sufficient training, the sector struggles to adequately respond to the ever-changing cyber threat landscape. With IT teams forced to be reactive instead of proactive towards security, the current wave of PYSA ransomware attacks can easily lead to breaches," said Ilia Sotnikov, Netwrix's vice president of product management.

News URL

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/high-numbers-of-schools-hit-by-phishing-account-compromise-and-ransomware-attacks/#ftag=RSS56d97e7