A new regional survey report from cybersecurity platform Sophos claims that education institutions – both schools and colleges – are increasingly being affected by ransomware, with 60 percent of attacks victimized in 2021, compared to 44 percent in 2020.
Survey finds state called ransomware education Education institutions suffered the highest data encryption rate (73 percent) compared to other sectors (65 percent) in 2022, and the longest recovery time, with 7 percent taking at least three months to recover. take – almost twice the average time for other areas (4 percent).
Additional findings from the survey claim that education institutions report the highest propensity to experience operational and business impacts from ransomware attacks compared to other sectors. It said that about 97 percent of higher education and 94 percent of lower education respondents said the attacks affected their ability to work, while 96 percent of higher education and 92 percent of lower education respondents in the private sector reported business and revenue. Reported. Loss.
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Another finding states that only 2 percent of educational institutions recovered all their encrypted data after paying the ransom (down from 4 percent in 2020); Schools, on average, were able to recover 62 percent of encrypted data after paying a ransom (down from 68 percent in 2020).
Furthermore, the survey states that higher education institutions in particular report the longest ransomware recovery times. “While 40 percent say it takes at least a month to heal (20 percent for other areas), 9 percent report it takes three to six months,” the survey said.
“Schools are among the hardest hit by ransomware. “They are prime targets for attackers because of their lack of strong cybersecurity protections and the goldmine of personal data they hold,” said Chester Wisniewski, Sophos’ lead research scientist.
“Unfortunately, these attacks are not going to stop, so the only way forward is to prioritize building anti-ransomware protection to identify and mitigate attacks before encryption becomes possible,” said Chester Wisniewski.
In light of the survey findings, Sophos experts recommend the following best practices for all organizations in all sectors. He urged the educational institutions to establish and maintain high quality protection at all points of the environment. Review security controls regularly and ensure they continue to meet the organization’s requirements. It further said, “Look for threats to identify and deter opponents prior to carrying out an attack – a Managed Detection and Response (MDR) if the team lacks the time or skills to do it in-house.” ) outsource the team.” Additionally, harden the IT environment by finding and closing major security gaps and creating backups, the suggestions added.
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