K12 Education Space Remains The #1 Target for Cyberattacks

Education is Still The #1 Target

The education space has long since gained and continues to hold the spot as the #1 most targeted industry for cyber criminals. Out of all the potential industries reviewed in a recent market analysis report by Microsoft, not only is education the #1 target, but K12 school districts specifically continue to experience an ever-increasing number of cyber threats.

With a wealth of attack methods at their fingertips, cyber threat actors see student and staff data as a valuable resource they can exploit for financial gain. These exploitations carry with them immense repercussions on the part of the victimized school districts as the mountain of data available in school systems combined with an already overburdened and understaffed information technology team at most districts makes them unfortunately easy targets for such sophisticated attacks.

Implementing a Cybersecurity Program

It is no longer a matter of “if” a school will be hacked, but “when”. This surge in concern surrounding student and staff data security, as well as the critical importance of avoiding school closures, missed education time, and lost resources means every school district needs to implement more effective cybersecurity measures now.

A useful cybersecurity plan allows schools to minimize the potential of a cyber attack and be better prepared to respond quickly to any type of cyber incident that occurs. This requires a proactive security approach with technology focused on identifying and containing any cyber attacks before they can impact the school’s data or operations, minimizing any disruption to students, teachers, and staff.

A Well-Developed Cybersecurity Plan Focuses on These 3 Key Concepts:

• Prevention: Focused on safeguarding sensitive data and minimizing or containing a potential cybersecurity attack. Activities include the design and implementation of an effective security architecture, the development of clearly defined policies and procedures and training for both staff and students.
• Detection: Centered around the discovery of potential threats. Activities include performing a vulnerability assessment, installing anti-virus software that can detect malware, spyware, ransomware, and other potential cyber threats and maintaining and reviewing network and computer security logs for any questionable activities.
• Response: Aimed at the containment and recovery of operations after a cyber attack. Activities include a thorough analysis of the incident to determine who and what was affected, coordinated communications to appropriate stakeholders, determination of legal implications and the implementation of remediation and mitigation actions to ensure a smooth recovery.

Protect Your Data Proactively and Aggressively

As the deployment of new technology solutions within K-12 schools grows, school districts will continue to experience an increase in cyber attacks. To address this challenge, school administrators need to take proactive steps to develop and implement a defensible, sustainable cybersecurity program.

No longer random victims, K12 school districts have a target on their back, and cybercriminals know the value of the data held in their systems. The only reliable form of protection is in a fully developed cyber security program that takes some of the stress off our IT professionals, allowing for a more quick, efficient, and aggressive detection and response system.

The Securus360 Solution

Securus360 is focused exclusively on the K-12 education space and has developed a proven cybersecurity approach that is deployed at schools across the United States. The Securus360 Managed eXtended Detection & Response (MXDR) platform provides comprehensive protection against cyberattacks, including: detailed and ongoing vulnerability assessments, 24/7/365 real-time threat hunting, monitoring & detection, automated incident response and hybrid intelligence-based security analytics that combine Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) with human cyber security analysts to ensure maximum alert accuracy.

To learn more contact Securus360 to schedule a time to speak with a cybersecurity expert.