Protecting Education against Cyber Threat Attackers

Education institutions are a focus for threat actors, especially ransomware attackers. Cyber Threat Attackers are not holding back when it comes to preying on schools, as shown by the attacks carried out by Vice Society in California schools in September and Snach in Wisconsin schools in late October. The education sector’s K–12 institutions are the most at risk because many of them have meager staff and even meagerer security budgets. Additionally, assaults affect school staff, students, and parents negatively since they usually end in the disclosure of highly sensitive personally identifiable information (PII).

Education is consistently one of the top 10 industries targeted according to the X-Force Threat Intelligence Index. According to the research, the top two threat types against educational institutions are ransomware and adware, while the top two infection routes are phishing and brute force. The average cost of a data breach for an educational institution is $3.86 million, therefore many schools today face a challenging cybersecurity situation.

To the Defense: Cyber Threat Attackers

IBM has established the IBM Education Security Preparedness Grants program for the second year in a row in response to the precarious situation that many schools find themselves in. The program’s goal is to assist educational institutions in making plans for resilience and preparing for a significant cyberattack, such as ransomware.

The management of IBM Security understood that while the education sector may greatly benefit from their teams’ experience against ransomware perpetrators, these services might not be possible for schools to afford.

Eight educational institutions in the US, Ireland, and the UAE received awards this year, while recipients in Costa Rica and Brazil will soon be announced. This year’s program had 120 applications from schools in the US.

This year’s winners include:

• City of Dublin Educational Training Board — Ireland
• Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence — UAE
• Cupertino Union School District — Sunnyvale, CA
• Rossville Cons. School District — Rossville, IN
• East China School District — East China, MI
• Newburgh Enlarged City School District — Newburgh, NY
• Goffstown School District — Goffstown, NH
• Prince William County Public Schools — Manassas, VA

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Bringing in the Expert: Cyber Threat Attackers

With a focus on support from IBM Security X-Force, the IBM Education Security Preparedness Grants program brings in cybersecurity professionals and professional knowledge from throughout IBM. These professionals will assist the institutions in improving their cybersecurity posture for many weeks. Developing ransomware playbooks, creating vulnerability management plans, finding methods to incorporate new security technology, and assisting with cybersecurity awareness training are a few examples of how this could be done.

Former participants have stated that “the IBM team was populated with top-tier experts and our team greatly benefited from all their knowledge and experience.” X-Force is composed of subject matter experts in penetration testing, incident response, threat intelligence, and cyber range simulations who deliver top-tier consulting services to businesses all over the world.

The opportunity to help schools and the importance of the mission—helping to protect institutions that provide education for the next generation—motivate IBMers to donate their time to support the Education Security Preparedness Grants.

One of the X-Force Incident Response team’s volunteers for this year, Nathan Abba, notes that “This opportunity to volunteer my time and skills for community give-back at a K-12 school district is just personally rewarding. Knowing that IBM commits resources to help local communities makes me feel even better about being part of this company.”

Another volunteer, Priyank Chandra, from IBM Cloud Advisory, stated, “Schools are an important foundation of society, and providing a secure foundation for their infrastructure is critical.” James Leone, a volunteer, and IBM Cybersecurity Architect recognize that “cybersecurity is a talent that can be hard to find; I jumped at the chance to maximize the value of my contributions by volunteering this skillset.”

Real Results

Previous IBM Education Security Preparedness Grant recipients reported that the program had a meaningful positive impact on their school district. One of the recipients from the previous year, Brevard Public Schools, thought the program was very useful. Brevard’s director of information technology, Barrett Puschus, stated that “before this grant, we were completely lacking in confidence in our cybersecurity. The IBM team came in and showed us how to create a cybersecurity strategy and plan for emergencies based on our needs. We feel optimistic about our cybersecurity posture today thanks to IBM’s help.”

Experience has taught IBM Security X-Force that for many businesses, a serious cyberattack is more a matter of when than if, and this seems to be true for schools more and more. “If your main focus lies on keeping me out of your environment, then it’s already checkmated,” Charles Henderson wrote in a Financial Times opinion piece last year. “Your mission should be to buy time, slow me down, and ultimately contain my attack.”

Worldwide educational institutions are receiving assistance from the IBM Education Security Preparedness Grants to buy time, stop assaults, and respond properly in the event of an incident. Together with other projects to support K–12 schools led by the US White House, CISA, K12 SIX, MS-ISAC, and others, IBM is helping schools throughout the world have a strong cybersecurity posture.

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