Last Tower Solutions
Education Fact Sheet
Here are stories and statistics for Educational Institutions
Including:
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Unauthorized disclosures, breaches or hacks resulting in the disclosure of personal data.
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Ransomware Attacks
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Phishing attacks resulting in the disclosure of personal data.
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Denial-of-Service Attacks
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Other cyber incidents resulting in school disruptions and unauthorized disclosures.
A Colorado DoE school fell victim to a data breach that leaked sensitive data of educators and current and former students. This leak was from the unauthorized access of CDHE systems that allowed the perpetrators to make off with certain data.
The Sweetwater Union High School District determined personal information of current and former employees, dependents, students, families, and others who provided information to the District was included in the potentially taken files. SUHSD faced a class action lawsuit that alleges the district failed to properly secure important information.
1,981 schools across 45 districts fell victim to cybersecurity attacks in 2022, almost doubling the previous year’s incidents, according to an Emsisoft report based on aggregated publicly available data.
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We assist schools and other educational institutions achieve their compliance with NIST, State Audits, HIPPA, COPPA, Comptroller Audits and others. Let Last Tower Solutions be part of your annual compliance goals to ensure your students and staff data is secure.
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If you’d like more information about how we can help you, get in touch today.
Why are schools targeted?
Poor Funding
Budgetary constraints and limited funding often times leaves IT and security second to other more important items. This means out of date technology which often leads to breaches and attacks.
Valuable Data
Researchers are more focused on making groundbreaking discoveries and innovating techniques, their expertise in school cybersecurity may sometimes lag, leaving their research susceptible to data leaks or cyber attacks.
Large Number of Users
A multitude of individuals, including students, faculty, administrators, and more have access to school networks and systems, creating a highly interconnected environment. With such a diverse user base, the wealth of data housed within these networks presents an enticing target for potential breaches.
Vulnerable Tech
Out of date technology and deprecated systems are prolific in a lot of environments but especially schools. Open Source or low-cost insecure technology is the only option sometimes to get things working. If these exist on your network they are a potential target for an adversary to sneak in.
Take a Closer Look
36%
36% of ransomware attacks were because of weak or compromised credentials. Passwords that do not have at least 12 characters, lack special characters or have existed in a database breach are under significant risk.
40%
40% of ransomware attacks were because of vulnerabilities found in common software. Vulnerabilities are everywhere and should be eliminated. A lack of patch management could potentially threaten your organization.
$53B
Between 2018 and mid-September 2023, 386 recorded incidents costed a total of $53.1 billion due to systems being down. K-12 schools accounted for most of the breaches worldwide, but colleges and universities have been more frequently targeted in recent years.