A new report from the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center has revealed that education institutions across the US experienced 122 cyber security ‘incidents’ in 2018.
Many of the reported incidents were significant, says the report, resulting in the theft of millions of taxpayer dollars. Other effects included stolen identities, tax fraud, and altered school records.
Report author Douglas A. Levin said: “Public schools are increasingly relying on technology for teaching, learning and school operations.
“It should hardly be surprising, therefore, that they are experiencing the same types of data breaches and cyber security incidents that have plagued even the most advanced and well-resourced corporations and government agencies.”
Report data was drawn from publicly disclosed incidents, including data breaches, phishing attacks, ransomware and malware, and denial of service attacks. The report also includes the K-12 Cyber Incident Map, which since 2016 has documented over 415 publicly disclosed incidents; an average of one new incident every three days.
Levin added: “Keeping K-12 schools ‘cyber secure’ is a wicked problem – one that is assured to get worse until we take meaningful steps to address it.
“This report and the ongoing work of the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center are only small, but necessary steps in a much longer journey.”
The full report can be found at: k12cybersecure.com/year-in-review/
