Cybersecurity is the sort of thing that can impact all sorts of industries, and the education industry is no different with all things having been considered and taken into account. It turns out that education might just be the single most impacted sector of all as far as ransomware is concerned, with 80% of lower education providers and 79% of higher education providers getting affected by it last year.
This comes from a recent survey conducted by Sophos which shed some light on the matter at hand. According to the findings presented in this survey which asked questions of 3,000 IT experts across 14 countries, few industries came close to education in terms of how ransomware may have inhibited their ability to educate children.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the construction industry was not all that far behind either. 71% of construction firms were targeted with ransomware attacks this year. Following close behind and tying for third place were central and federal government institutions and media and entertainment agencies both of which saw a 70% attack rate apiece.
Local and state governments were attacked 69% of the time, as were retail outlets. Rounding off the top five list are energy and utility companies, 67% of which received ransomware attacks in the previous year, as well as distribution and transportation concerns which faced a similar proportion of attacks.
The Biden-Harris administration has spoken out about this issue because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up derailing the entire American economy. They have outlined a plan that will serve to bolster the level of cybersecurity that K-12 schools can end up relying on, thereby rendering them safer from these attacks than might have been the case otherwise.
36% of attacks for lower education institutions and 40% for higher education came from compromised credentials. That makes this a singularly important thing to focus on in order to keep ransomware attacks at bay, and the Biden administration would do well to emphasize this.
Read next: North Americans Are 20% More Likely to Have Their Password Leaked
This comes from a recent survey conducted by Sophos which shed some light on the matter at hand. According to the findings presented in this survey which asked questions of 3,000 IT experts across 14 countries, few industries came close to education in terms of how ransomware may have inhibited their ability to educate children.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the construction industry was not all that far behind either. 71% of construction firms were targeted with ransomware attacks this year. Following close behind and tying for third place were central and federal government institutions and media and entertainment agencies both of which saw a 70% attack rate apiece.
Local and state governments were attacked 69% of the time, as were retail outlets. Rounding off the top five list are energy and utility companies, 67% of which received ransomware attacks in the previous year, as well as distribution and transportation concerns which faced a similar proportion of attacks.
The Biden-Harris administration has spoken out about this issue because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up derailing the entire American economy. They have outlined a plan that will serve to bolster the level of cybersecurity that K-12 schools can end up relying on, thereby rendering them safer from these attacks than might have been the case otherwise.
36% of attacks for lower education institutions and 40% for higher education came from compromised credentials. That makes this a singularly important thing to focus on in order to keep ransomware attacks at bay, and the Biden administration would do well to emphasize this.
Read next: North Americans Are 20% More Likely to Have Their Password Leaked
