How schools can fight the growing ransomware attacks

Key points:

The education sector faces a threat in growth and multiplication: an increase in cyber attacks of ransomware groups that take advantage of generative artificial intelligence and other sophisticated tools.

Recently, A software provider was the objective of data violation As a result, that affected K-12 school districts in the United States, computer pirates obtained confidential data, such as names, address, birth dates, financial reports, medical records and social security numbers.

These attacks illustrate increasingly sophisticated and bold tactics of ransomware gangs aimed at schools and a variety of other sectors. According to a Recent reportRansomware attacks aimed at the United States education sector increased more than 25 percent between April 2023 and April 2024, compared to the same period of the previous year.

The greatest threat was part of a general increase of 17.8 percent in ransomware attacks. Of the attempts of attacks, 217 attacked the education sector, the highest total room of any industry.

In the era of a world of digital and hybrid learning, the education sector faces numerous challenges when it comes to cybersecurity, including the lack of resources and budgets, curious students and obsolete infrastructure. Combined with the growing ransomware threats, schools must adhere to best practices for adequate cyber hygiene, strong Funds of IT safety and the implementation of a zero trusted architecture. Taking these steps can minimize the surface of the attack, reduce violations, eliminate lateral movement, stop data loss and strengthen defense capacities.

Soling the Foundation: Cyber ​​Hygiene and Ti Security Funds

However, they choose to handle individual incidents, school IT teams have no choice but to stay prepared and prioritize the improvement of their foundations of cyber security and IT safety. Proactively addressing ransomware threats will allow schools to remain more resistant.

There are steps that all, even curious students, can improve their cybersecurity posture. These include creating complex passwords, ensuring that the software is updated regularly, participates in Phishing's awareness training and implementing multifactorial authentication. Such best practices can be reinforced by integrating cybersecurity in the curriculum and ensuring that password updates and training occur on an established basis. Maintaining cyber hygiene and practicing the fundamentals of IT safety is a continuous effort that can become part of the daily habits of students and staff when constantly emphasizing, promoting a culture of consciousness and resilience of cybersecurity.

Zero Trust: Do not trust anyone, always verify

Practicing adequate cyber hygiene and maintaining the safety of IT foundations is only part of the solution to protect against attacks. Evolutionary threats and technological advances are not slowing down, and schools need a security frame that is maintained effectively with this new digital panorama. An important security progression is zero trust, which is a focus for federal agencies. Zero Trust is not mandatory for the education sector, but school districts should prioritize implementation as a strong general security practice and specifically to help protect themselves against ransomware attacks.

Operate under the principle of “never trusting, always verifying”, zero trust assumes that it violates willpower happen, no could. Architecture promotes a proactive approach to cyber threats when treating each access attempt, either from inside or outside the network, as potentially hostile. The continuous verification of identities and devices is applied, regardless of the location.

In case an attack occurs, Zero Trust is inherently designed to minimize the surface of the network attack, prevent the lateral movement of threats and reduce the impacts of data violation. The pairing of zero confidence with the foundations of cyber hygiene and IT safety places a plan that allows schools to continue operations and ensure confidential data.

Fortify with principles of microsegmentation

A key component of a zero trusted approach for cybersecurity is the microsegmentation, which creates one by one segments that are negotiated and authenticated by zero trusted architectures. According to the principles of less privilege access, users are directly connected to the applications requested without exposing the network.

The implementation of a zero trusted architecture and principles of microsegmentation are the best practices that allow schools to ensure critical assets proactively, such as students and other data, often the objective of ransomware gangs. This approach not only protects valuable information, but reduces risks, unplanned inactivity time and the consequences derived from an attack.

As these criminals become a growing threat to schools and for students' privacy, it is imperative that the education sector take all possible steps to ensure their data and maintain strong fundamentals. Having a clear plan and ensuring that everyone recognizes the signs of possible ransomware attacks are the first essential steps. From everyday practices, such as the foundations of cyber hygiene and safety, even more IT -based implementations, such as zero trust and microsegmentation, everyone can play a role in the fight against ransomware attacks and reinforce cyber defenses.