It often goes unnoticed that cyber attacks can cause catastrophic and long-lasting damage to organizations. Recently, a news report in the UK announced that more than a dozen schools had been affected by a cyberattack. The source of the attack was a notorious cybercrime group that was known to target educational institutions with ransomware attacks across the UK and other countries. The outcome of the attack was highly confidential documents being compromised and leaked online by the group. The documents included children’s information, staff pays details and many contract-related documents. This incident serves to highlight the dangers cybercrime and cyber attacks can present to organizations. As malicious hackers become more equipped with sophisticated technology, the consequences of an attack can become increasingly serious.
Even a single attack may result in the loss of personally identifiable information of many people, or potentially the entire organization. More recently, this incident, unfortunately, highlighted the vulnerabilities in the security of educational organizations in the UK. As cybercrime continues to evolve, it is vital that organizations take steps to protect themselves from malicious attacks. Damage control measures should include pre-emptive steps during and after a potential attack. These steps involve awareness for staff and students regarding potential attacks, effective security measures to mitigate potential attacks, and the ability to rapidly detect and contain any attacks that do occur. Moreover, organizations should not take these threats lightly, especially educational institutions. Schools must be aware of the risks they are exposed to while being online and have a viable plan in place to protect their confidential information.
