Hackers play on people’s fears. That is why schools need to be especially vigilant about cybersecurity in the weeks and months ahead, as educators, students, and parents worry about how their lives are likely to change as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Remember, one click on a phishing email can disrupt a whole computer system.
Plus, with schools closed indefinitely in many places, a record number of students will be using school-issued digital devices at home or accessing cloud-based school services from their own digital devices. That could exacerbate K-12 cybersecurity problems, which were already growing before the coronavirus.
Consider that there have been at least 775 publicly disclosed cyber incidents in K-12 schools nationally since 2016. That includes phishing attacks, data breaches, ransomware attacks, and denial-of-service attacks, according to the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center. And the number doubled between 2018 and 2019.
Under normal circumstances, this was a big problem. Now, it could be even bigger.