Schools are a top target for ransomware gangs. There has been a wave of attacks on educational institutions across the US, Europe, and the UK, even affecting the likes of Harvard and Princeton.
These incidents only continue to increase: a recent study found ransomware attacks on the education sector have increased by 69% globally as of last year. Many schools are simply not prepared for the volume and viciousness of modern-day attacks, and hackers know it.
Learn why ransomware gangs are zeroing in on the education sector, and how schools can protect themselves by implementing cybersecurity best practices, including a last line of defense at the storage level.
Why Schools Have Become a Key Target for Ransomware
“Educational institutions have become one of the most attractive ransomware targets because they combine large volumes of sensitive data with historically underfunded IT and security operations,” says Juan Mathews Rebello Santos, a cybersecurity researcher and ethical hacker who runs the National Security Vulnerability Database in Brazil.
Schools sit on the same kind of sensitive data as banks and healthcare providers: personal records, payment information, health data, and identity systems. The difference is that financial services and healthcare are heavily regulated and well-resourced on the security side, while schools are typically running the same risks with a fraction of the staff and budget.
Another reason is that schools offer a large attack surface.
“Schools are especially vulnerable because they usually operate highly decentralized environments,” says Juan. Universities in particular need to keep their networks open and flexible to support research projects, personal devices, remote learning, third-party apps, and tens of thousands of students studying from home.
Finally, attackers know that educational organizations can’t afford downtime.
“If systems go offline during enrollment periods, grading cycles, exams, or admissions windows, the pressure to recover quickly becomes enormous,” Juan explains, who has investigated ransomware incidents in education environments first-hand.
What Happens During a Ransomware Attack on a School
Ransomware attacks rarely unfold the way schools expect. By the time the ransom note appears, attackers have often been inside the network for days or weeks.
“One ransomware case that stayed with me involved an educational environment where attackers initially entered through compromised credentials tied to a remote access service,” remembers Juan. “What surprised the team most was not the encryption itself, but how long the attackers remained inside the environment before deployment.”
The attackers mapped internal systems, escalated privileges, accessed student and administrative records, and moved laterally for days before actually encrypting the data.
The Impact of Ransomware on Schools
Ransomware attacks have serious consequences for students. After an attack, students typically miss three days to three weeks of learning time, and it takes educational institutions two to nine months to recover, according to a U.S. Government report.
The financial impact is significant too. The average ransomware demand for schools is $608,000, but it can run into the millions. On top of the ransom itself, schools face the costs of incident response, legal fees, regulatory penalties, system rebuilds, and long-term reputational damage.
How Schools Can Protect Themselves Against Ransomware
Schools need to take a proactive approach to ensure they are ready for inevitable attacks. Here are some essential steps schools and educational providers should take to prevent ransomware:
Don’t Get Complacent Because You Have End Point Protection
Modern attackers are more likely to steal credentials than brute-force their way in, which means defending the perimeter is no longer enough. You need to monitor what users do once they’re inside your network, not just who’s allowed in.
“One of the biggest misconceptions in education is believing that endpoint protection alone is enough,” says Juan. “Modern ransomware attacks are identity-driven.”
Schools need to implement a zero trust strategy, such as enforcing multi-factor authentication, applying least-privilege access principles, and monitoring for unusual behavior.
Carry Out Cybersecurity Awareness and Training
Educating staff and students on cybersecurity best practices is crucial. Cybersecurity training should cover recognizing phishing attempts, managing secure passwords, and understanding the importance of not sharing sensitive information online. Training needs to be ongoing rather than a one-time exercise, since attacker techniques evolve constantly and a single moment of inattention can be enough to give an attacker the foothold they need.
Understand That Backups Aren’t Enough
Many schools believe they’re protected simply because they have backups in place, but this can lead to a false sense of security. Backups won’t stop cybercriminals from encrypting, stealing, or leaking data. And these days, many attackers will actively target your backups.
Research shows 95% of educational organizations hit by ransomware in the past year said attackers tried to compromise their backups, and 71% of those attempts were successful.
Juan says, “Backups alone are no longer a complete ransomware strategy. If attackers can reach backup infrastructure, compromise identity systems, or exfiltrate sensitive data before encryption, recovery becomes far more complex than simply restoring files.”
Without active protection in place, backups alone can’t defend against today’s more sophisticated ransomware threats.
Be Aware of Third-Party Threats
Every vendor with access to your systems is part of your attack surface, and schools are increasingly being hit through the third-party platforms they rely on every day.
In a recent attack, a hacking group breached Canvas, the cloud-based learning platform used by more than 30 million students and 8,000 institutions worldwide, including Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, and Georgetown. Ransom notes appeared on the homepage of affected schools’ Canvas sites during finals week.
Schools should vet vendors’ security practices before signing contracts and limit each platform’s access to only what it needs.
With these best practices, educational institutions can enhance their resilience against ransomware threats, ensuring a safer environment for teaching and learning.
Implement a Last Line of Defense at the Storage Layer
Schools need overlapping layers of protection, so that if one control fails, others are in place to catch what gets through. This is known as “defense in depth.”
In practice, that means combining various layers to catch attackers at different attack stages, such as identity controls, network segmentation, endpoint protection, and backups.
One layer that schools often overlook is protection at the storage layer. By the time ransomware reaches the files themselves, most other defenses have already been bypassed. ProLion DataDefense sits directly at the storage layer, detecting suspicious file activity in real-time and blocking ransomware before it can encrypt or exfiltrate data. This gives schools a critical last line of defense when other controls fail.
Let’s Defend Schools from Cyberattacks
Ransomware isn’t going away, but schools don’t have to face it alone. Learn how ProLion DataDefense detects and blocks ransomware in real-time, before it can reach student data or disrupt learning.
You can also download our free guide, “Cybersecurity 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Ransomware”, or take our assessment to see how well your school is protected and get personalized recommendations.
