Education sector not prepared for cybersecurity in the age of COVID

New research from Malwarebytes reveals that 46.7 percent of IT decision-makers in schools say that no additional requirements have been introduced for students, faculty, or staff who connected to the school's network remotely during the pandemic.

In addition 50.7 percent of IT decision-makers surveyed say that no one was required to enroll in cybersecurity training before the new school year began

"Students during the pandemic are struggling with digital access, engagement and a severe sense of isolation. Cybersecurity should be the least of their concerns, and yet, it's concerning to find that nearly half of educational institutions show a lack of preparedness," says Marcin Kleczynski, CEO of Malwarebytes. "It is essential that schools -- and all organizations -- stop viewing cybersecurity as an afterthought; protecting our students and their data online should be a top priority for educators."

Yet the report reveals that cybersecurity preparation makes a significant difference to a school's ability to weather a cybersecurity event. For respondents who engaged in a variety of cybersecurity best practices before transitioning to a distance learning model, none suffered a cyberattack, and none cancelled a single day of distance learning because of an attack.

Only 18.2 percent of these more well-prepared respondents say their teachers or students have suffered a Zoom-bombing attack compared to the 29.3 percent of all respondents.

In addition, the report shows major inconsistencies in the perceived experiences between IT decision-makers and students. A remarkably low number of IT decision-makers say their schools suffered a cyberattack -- just 2.7 percent -- and yet, 46.2 percent of students believe their schools did suffer an attack.

Nearly three quarters (70.7 percent) of schools have deployed new software needed for distance learning, such as Zoom, Remind, and Google Classroom. However, in preparing for the new school year, 30.7 percent of schools admit to not being able to provide for all teachers, administrators, and staff members to work remotely, while 45.3 percent of schools could not provide all the devices needed for every student to attain an equal quality of education.

With distance learning in full swing there are also concerns over device shortages. 28 percent of IT respondents say their schools are missing laptops, computers or tablets for teachers and 40 percent are missing those tools for parents and students, and 38.7 percent worry that teachers or students are too quickly using up the data on school-provided WiFi hotspots.

The full report is available on the Malwarebytes site.

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