Universities, colleges, and schools experienced 130 confirmed and unconfirmed ransomware intrusions during the first half of 2025, which is 23% higher than the same period last year, reports Higher Ed Dive.
Only the business, government, and healthcare sectors were impacted by more ransomware attacks during the first six months of the year, according to an analysis from Comparitech. Such a report comes two months after a teen admitted guilt over his involvement in the massive cyberattack against student information system provider PowerSchool, which led to the exposure of data belonging to over 60 million students and 10 million faculty members. PowerSchool, which has been extorted for $2.85 million, has already been sued by over 100 school systems due to the incident. Mounting digital tech usage, reduced cybersecurity resources, and extensive data have made the education sector an attractive target for cybercriminals, with 82% of K-12 schools across the U.S. reported by the Center for Internet Security to have been compromised from July 2023 to December 2024.
Only the business, government, and healthcare sectors were impacted by more ransomware attacks during the first six months of the year, according to an analysis from Comparitech. Such a report comes two months after a teen admitted guilt over his involvement in the massive cyberattack against student information system provider PowerSchool, which led to the exposure of data belonging to over 60 million students and 10 million faculty members. PowerSchool, which has been extorted for $2.85 million, has already been sued by over 100 school systems due to the incident. Mounting digital tech usage, reduced cybersecurity resources, and extensive data have made the education sector an attractive target for cybercriminals, with 82% of K-12 schools across the U.S. reported by the Center for Internet Security to have been compromised from July 2023 to December 2024.
