School documents containing confidential information have been stolen by ransomware gangs and dumped on the Internet for free. Students are described as being sexually assaulted by other students, hospitalized due to mental health problems, abused by their parents, and even attempting suicide.
In today's data-driven economy, our personal information is constantly sent to websites and organizations to automate, transfer, and verify certain processes. Much of this information or data is confidential or private. This includes medical information, financial documents, and personal records such as an address, and may contain sensitive or confidential information.
In the case of primary schools and universities, schools, and universities are often required to hold large databases of information about their students. These institutions usually maintain large databases of information about their students.
Unfortunately, as useful as these databases are for automating processes and maintaining records for schools, this trove of information makes these databases big targets for a data breach.
As a result of the recent cyberattacks, more than 300,000 files, containing the entire case files for sexual assault cases, were leaked onto the net. There was a ransom demand of $1 million put forward last week by Minneapolis Public Schools, a district with 36,000 students. Furthermore, the data exposed also included medical records, discrimination complaints, Social Security numbers, and contact information for district employees. In addition, it included their medical history.
Due to financial constraints, districts are ill-equipped to defend themselves. However, they have responded diligently and transparently when attacked, especially as they struggle to provide the finest education for their students and negotiate an ever-shrinking budget.
Despite the administrators' promise to inform affected individuals months after the shocking attack in Minneapolis, they have not done so far. The federal government does not require schools to notify parents in the same way that it does hospitals.
As a result of the exposure of the case files of six students accused of sexual assault, the Associated Press reached out to their families. This was the first time they had been alerted to the danger by someone other than a reporter.
The term "school data breach" refers to the access or misuse of confidential or sensitive information within a school's computer network by a malicious internal user or an external attacker when they gain unauthorized access. Occasionally, these third parties will be able to get their hands on data that they should not be obtaining by accident. This type of incident is usually caused by an internal user viewing data that should not normally be accessible to them. This is because they are not entitled to access it. Even if the data is not removed, this breach is considered a security breach, as it bypasses security measures.
Despite this, schools are less concerned about these types of breaches than malicious ones, which are a higher priority.
There are more of them than you would think, and they are quite common. More than 40,000 security incidents occurred over two years in 2021, according to Verizon. A total of more than 2000 opportunities were leaked from this number, which was an unacceptable level of privacy violation for users and companies.
Oftentimes, ransomware attacks are caught in the middle of a school's operation, but the data is generally lost. The Los Angeles Unified School District decided to do exactly that last Labor Day weekend in observance of the holiday. Despite this, more than 1,900 former students' private records including psychological evaluations, medical records, and other information were leaked online as part of an ongoing investigation. The district revealed the full extent of the breach to the public in February, noting that this breach involved three decades of data and that notifying victims is a complex process.
In the real world, ransomware attacks on schools have no lasting impact on closing schools, recovering from the damage, or even causing the cost of cyber insurance to soar. In light of the AP's discovery that private information had been posted on the open internet and dark web, staff, students, and parents have been traumatized.
San Diego, Des Moines, and Tucson, Arizona, are a few of the other large districts recently affected by data theft. There is no certainty about the severity of these hacks. However, it has been criticized that all the companies affected by ransomware are slow to admit they have been infected. Also, they hesitate to let victims know when they have been notified - or both.
Schools and universities are at risk of losing sensitive student information as well as their finances as a result of institutional data breaches. It is important to stress however that in many cases, even if an organization took appropriate security precautions to prevent a data breach, their reputation can take a hit because of the breach. In some cases, this may be more of a concern for companies and financial institutions. However, reputation is still incredibly significant for schools attempting to protect their students' information.
The threat of hackers targeting universities may seem more logical to many. However, even for K-12 schools, numerous cybersecurity risks should still be considered. As reported by NBC News, over 1200 K-12 schools have been impacted by hackers who have stolen their students' data and then posted it online through ransomware. Even though younger students may not be able to access their own banks or social media accounts, personal data leaks pose all the same risks as those involving older students. Students may have to deal with the consequences of security breaches affecting their personal information and social security numbers for years after the events are over. The consequences of this are numerous down the road.
Data Breaches in Schools: What Are The Possible Causes?
Email Mishaps
There is plenty of reasons why attackers target schools because, in today's modern world, many schools and libraries insist on students creating online accounts to access information. There is no doubt that the convenience of having such accounts is tremendous. However, unfortunately, these accounts contain information that can be abused and exploited by others. A common way in which educators communicate with their students is through mass emails containing information about upcoming tests or events. As more users adopt this type of broadcasting mode, hackers will be able to target a large quantity of storable information in a short amount of time.
Phishing Attacks
The use of phishing attacks as another method of stealing data from schools is a common cause of data breaches. Various types of phishing attacks can be committed. This kind of email can be classified as spam containing links to a malicious program from within it or containing malware. School administrators have no choice but to warn their students to be vigilant and read the contents of emails carefully, so that they remain vigilant. Also, before clicking on any link, they should check if the sender is someone they have a good relationship with and that they trust.
Students can also suffer from phishing attacks when using banned or insecure websites. In most cases, the websites are filled with untrustworthy hyperlinks that could contain malware, but they can even infect your data even before you even click on the URL to go to another website.
Intentional Liabilities
In less common situations involving a student taking unethical actions that lead to an intentional data breach, such as a student committing unethical behavior. Although it is unfortunate, it is possible that a student may feel slighted by the institution by a data breach and this can result in damage to the institution's reputation as a whole.
Human Error
It is necessary to recognize that, sometimes, human error can lead to easy access by hackers, which is more common than organizations might wish, unfortunately. In many cases, however, schools and universities are not investing enough time and money into preventing the leaks of sensitive data, which could be prevented with enough training and resources to prevent the types of breaches that are happening right now.
After school systems become the victim of ransomware attacks, criminals turn to a distressing tactic to extort money by releasing the files of children's school accounts onto the internet under the name of ransomware. Currently, a disturbing trend is developing among students that threatens their privacy and security. Considering the incident, educational institutions should take proactive measures to safeguard sensitive student information from malicious hackers. They should also strengthen their cybersecurity defenses to protect sensitive data from being exposed to the public.
