With data breaches on the rise in K-12 education, the team here at FACTS knows it’s more important than ever to ensure that our schools feel their information is protected. As part of our commitment to data security, FACTS IT Director – Cybersecurity Erik Brown recently led an insightful webinar discussing evolving cybersecurity threats to K-12 education, new strategies from attackers, how schools remain vulnerable to risks, and ways you can make cybersecurity a more significant part of your school’s day-to-day activities.
Understanding the importance of protecting your school’s data is the first step in creating a safe space. Let’s recap what was covered in this webinar and how to discover what threats are lurking for K-12 institutions – and how you can establish a process that lowers risk and gives everyone at your school peace of mind.
Cybersecurity Challenges Schools Face
K-12 systems host a wide range of valuable data for attackers on the dark web. Your students, staff, and parents’ personal identifiable information (PII) are in high demand, and ensuring your cybersecurity system is ready to handle incoming attacks is a necessity. However, every school faces challenges beyond online attacks that make it difficult to keep your school’s information safe.
Some of the most prominent challenges schools may face when it comes to securing their data from attackers are:
- Staffing: Many schools lack a dedicated cybersecurity team or don’t have a large enough team to tackle an influx of cybersecurity attacks. With staffing shortages, it becomes even more challenging for some schools to maintain a full and robust team of cybersecurity professionals.
- Exploitation: Exploited vulnerabilities make up 29% of the cybersecurity compromise rate. Your faculty and staff are busy and may become overwhelmed, and attackers may take advantage of these vulnerabilities with targeted cyberattacks.
- Budget Issues: While the industry-standard budget for cybersecurity is 5-8%, K-12 institutions set less than 1% of the IT budget for cybersecurity on average, giving schools fewer resources to get the security systems they need.
These internal issues only enhance the risks and boost those safety concerns. Combined with other external factors, managing your school’s cybersecurity becomes more complicated.
The Ransomware Surge
On top of school-wide issues when it comes to cybersecurity, ransomware attacks on educational institutions have become even more prominent, especially gaining attention in May and June of 2023. Even with the takedown of ransomware attackers like Lockbit and Rhysida, these pressures remain.
As ransomware continues to be an issue for educational institutions everywhere, developing your cybersecurity system to combat these attacks is crucial.
Navigating the Risks
Throughout the webinar, listeners were able to learn about how cybersecurity is a critical factor in protecting your school and how schools may struggle with it. Now, it’s time to take your school toward a safer future with better cybersecurity tools and practices.
Make cybersecurity a bigger priority for your school and enhance training and education to keep everyone aware, engaged, and ready to help protect your school from unwanted cyberattacks.
Explore our other webinars for more on cybersecurity and to learn more about how FACTS is your resource for thought leadership in K-12 education.
