Critical Steps to Help School Districts Combat Ransomware Attacks

Key points:

School districts are one of the Industries most vulnerable to a ransomware attack., particularly from foreign adversaries, according to Ann Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies. Besides GAO Report 2022 indicated that K-12 schools faced significant learning disruptions and substantial monetary losses due to cyberattacks, with some districts reporting a disruption to educational operations of three days to three weeks and recovery periods spanning two to nine months. . Some school districts reported that in the 2022-2023 school year alone, violations cost them more than $1 million.

From education disruptions to costly recoveries, we've seen cyberattacks significantly impact schools. With ransomware attacks on the educational sector duplication From 2022 to 2023, districts across the country must prepare for another wave.

To bolster defenses against ransomware attacks, districts must first understand what makes them vulnerable to attacks. Schools often face resource constraints: many of them use outdated technologies, preventing them from implementing the cybersecurity tools they need. Schools also often do not have, or do not prioritize, their budget for adequate IT equipment. In general, districts barely allocate budgets for cyber initiatives. Notably, recent research revealed that nearly half of the districts surveyed spent only two percent or less of their budget on cybersecurity.

Having limited cybersecurity resources hinders a district's ability to implement robust, modern security measures and puts education, sensitive data, and more at risk. Despite these challenges, there are steps districts can take to proactively defend against attacks.

assume non-compliance

Following in the footsteps of federal agencies, districts must shift their mindset from “prevent all attacks” to “contain successful attacks.” This shift in mindset from “assume an infraction” will allow the school to prepare for when an attack occurs, not if an attack occurs.

Our world is more hyperconnected and hybrid than ever, particularly since 2020, when many schools had to transition to online education due to the pandemic. Even four years later, some school districts are still using online learning.

Traditional security strategies establish a network perimeter, limiting incoming traffic but allowing most outgoing traffic through firewalls. However, this architecture ignores the reality that numerous threats can reside within the school network and does not take into account this new hybrid, hyperconnected world. This world has provided attackers with new avenues and access methods to launch their attacks. For example, when students and teachers bring school laptops home, they are outside the network perimeter and connected to public or home networks, making them more vulnerable to attack.

To reduce the impact of an attack, districts must “assume a breach” and have a plan in place to ensure critical information remains protected even outside the network perimeter.

Increase end-to-end visibility

As districts adopt a “take a breach” mentality, they must simultaneously develop a viable plan to protect against any attack. A key part of your plan should include visibility into all networks and all traffic. After all, they can't defend themselves from what they can't see.

In today's environment, it is essential to have a comprehensive view of traffic across all school-issued devices, whether students are at school or at home. Visibility enables the application of least privilege security policies, a concept in which a user is only granted access or permission on a network when absolutely necessary across all workloads, regardless of location. End-to-end visibility across the entire hybrid attack surface will eliminate blind spots, identify vulnerabilities and critical assets, and enable IT teams to effectively monitor all network activities.

Implement a segmentation strategy

Districts can also adopt zero trust segmentation (ZTS), also known as micro-segmentation. ZTS is based on the principles of least privilege access and is a fundamental pillar of any Zero Trust architecture. Through continuous visualization of all communication patterns and traffic between workflows, devices, and the Internet, ZTS constantly verifies a user and creates granular policies that allow only essential communication. That way, if a breach or attack occurs, the attacker will not be able to easily move around the environment to compromise more assets and will instead be contained and isolated.

By leveraging end-to-end visibility and ZTS, districts ensure the protection of critical assets and school-issued devices both inside and outside the classroom. This approach not only protects valuable information, such as student data, but also reduces the risk of consequences from an attack.

The role that students can play in cyber hygiene practices

There are steps everyone, including students, can take to improve a school's cyber strategies. Examples include creating complex passwords, ensuring software is updated regularly, participating in phishing awareness training, and implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA). To ensure that cybersecurity culture is reinforced and part of the curriculum, schools can ensure this is covered on teacher workshop days.

Additionally, schools can establish a system to ensure student engagement by involving IT teams in the classroom and inviting them to educate students about the importance of cyber hygiene practices. Maintaining cybersecurity awareness is an ongoing effort, and both staff and students would benefit from refresher courses and training to stay informed on emerging threats and the latest security best practices.

Protecting education

In an era where learning extends beyond the classroom, it is crucial that districts have robust, modern strategies to protect valuable information and allow schools to operate normally even when an attack occurs. From higher-level strategies, such as IT teams adopting a “take a breach” mentality, increasing end-to-end visibility, and implementing ZTS, to everyday practices, such as students being able to identify suspicious emails and set up MFA Effectively, everyone can play a role. part in reducing the attack surface before it is too late.