Report: Education Now Most Targeted Sector for Ransomware

Education has surpassed healthcare as the sector most targeted by ransomware, a variety of malware that makes data inaccessible to users until a ransom is paid.

According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, some 4,000 ransomware attacks occur every day in the United States this year alone. According to a new report from security analyst BitSight, the number of attacks against educational organizations now dwarfs attacks in all other sectors.

According to the BitSight Insights report ("The Rising Face of Cyber Crime: Ransomware"), a full 13 percent of education institutions examined by the company had experienced ransomware attacks on their networks in the last year. That compares with government at 5.9 percent and healthcare at 3.5 percent. Energy/utilities and retail rounded out the top 5 at 3.4 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively. The finance sector came in a distant sixth at 1.5 percent.

"While several ransomware attacks on healthcare companies have made headlines this year, the issue is more widespread. Our analysis shows that the Education sector is actually the most impacted group, followed by Government. Establishing email security protocols, monitoring key third-party vendors, tracking security ratings and avoiding file sharing are all ways to mitigate risks associated with ransomware," said Stephen Boyer, co-founder and CTO of BitSight, in a statement released to coincide with the report.

The report indicated that ransomware increased across all sectors in 2016.

A separate report released this month, "The 2016 Global Ransomware Report," security firm Datto surveyed 1,100 managed service providers to get their take on ransomware. MSPs placed education much lower on the threat scale (in ninth place, with 12 percent of MSPs seeing education institutions affected compared with No. 1 professional services at 44 percent and No. 2 healthcare at 38 percent).

Datto's report found that the most effective protection against ransomware is backup and disaster recovery, followed by employee training. Many ransomware attacks occur through e-mail phishing, the report noted, and keeping employees uninformed about phishing attacks is "a bad combo." The report indicated that 46 percent of MSPs saw e-mail phishing attacks as the leading cause of ransomware attacks; lack of employee training, at 36 percent, came in second. Malicious websites and Web-based ads were also cited by 12 percent of MSPs.

According tot he Datto report: "Malicious emails coupled with a general lack of employee cybersecurity training is the leading cause of a successful ransomware attack. Today's businesses must provide regular cybersecurity training to ensure all employees are able to spot and avoid a potential phishing scam in their inbox, a leading entrance point for the malware."

The least effective defenses against ransomware cited in the Datto report were virus/malware protection and e-mail spam filters.

It's also worth noting that cloud services are not immune from ransomware, according to Datto's report. Seventy percent of respondents said their clients have been infected via Dropbox, 29 percent via Office 365, 12 percent via Google Apps, 6 percent via box and 3 percent via Salesforce.

About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .


Featured

  •  black graduation cap with a glowing blue AI brain circuit symbol on top

    Report: AI Is a Must for Modern Learners

    A new report from VitalSource identifies a growing demand among learners for AI tools, declaring that "AI isn't just a nice-to-have; it's a must."

  • From Fire TV to Signage Stick: University of Utah's Digital Signage Evolution

    Jake Sorensen, who oversees sponsorship and advertising and Student Media in Auxiliary Business Development at the University of Utah, has navigated the digital signage landscape for nearly 15 years. He was managing hundreds of devices on campus that were incompatible with digital signage requirements and needed a solution that was reliable and lowered labor costs. The Amazon Signage Stick, specifically engineered for digital signage applications, gave him the stability and design functionality the University of Utah needed, along with the assurance of long-term support.

  • laptop screen with a video play icon, surrounded by parts of notebooks, pens, and a water bottle on a student desk

    New AI Tool Generates Video Explanations Based on Course Materials

    AI-powered studying and learning platform Studyfetch has launched Imagine Explainers, a new video creator that utilizes artificial intelligence to generate 10- to 60-minute explainer videos for any topic.

  • handshake where one hand is human and the other is composed of glowing circuits

    Western Governors University Joins Open edX as a Mission-Aligned Organization

    Western Governors University is the first organization to join the Open edX project as a "mission-aligned organization" (MAO), a new category of institution-level partnership supporting development of the Open edX open source online learning platform.