After a cyber attack on seven schools in Karlsruhe – an attempt at an explanation. Why are educational institutions often easy victims?
Schools and universities are often inadequately protected and are therefore increasingly a target for cybercriminals. On the one hand, this can be due to the low IT budget, on the other hand, educational institutions are often tempted to keep access open in order to offer their students access to the many different services from home. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of such an infrastructure, configuration errors occur which can be exploited by the attackers. A 2022 Acronis survey shows that 42% of system failure incidents are due to human error.
In addition, the service providers who look after schools are an interesting target for the attackers, since cybercriminals gain access to several schools with the same systems through a compromised IT supervisor.
We all must not underestimate that educational institutions have data that is of interest to many hackers. Apart from personal data of employees and students, it is above all research data as well as technical and medical devices that can be potential targets. (Candid Wüest, Vice President Cyber Protection Research at Acronis)
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