North Carolina school districts can now apply for IBM grants meant to strengthen cybersecurity via IBM.org through March 1 to receive one of the six $500,000 grants, which will be contributed via in-kind funding.

IBM points out that in the past year, schools have become a growing target for cyberattacks, particularly ransomware, which involves bad actors blocking access to school systems and demanding payment to release them.

More than 1,600 schools fell victim to this attack in 2020 alone, including Richmond Community College just outside of Raleigh in Hamlet, Burke County Public Schools just outside of Charlotte, Guilford Technical Community College in Jamestown and Haywood County schools near Asheville.

This issue came to a head in December when the FBI issued an alert stating more than half of reported ransomware incidents between August and September 2020 involved K-12 schools.

In addition to its cybersecurity grants, IBM teamed up with Morning Consult to survey 1,000 U.S. educators and administrators in K-12 schools and colleges to learn more about the cybersecurity problems they’re facing.

Topline findings include:

  • Training needed: Nearly 60% of educators and administrators say they aren’t sure or haven’t received new cybersecurity initiatives or training for remote learning, despite 78% of educators saying they’re currently utilizing some type of online learning.
  • Educators falling behind: More than half have not received cybersecurity training.
  • Lack of concern: Despite spikes in attacks, half of educators and administrators aren’t concerned about an attack against their own institutions.
  • False confidence: 83% of administrators expressed confidence in their school’s ability to handle a cyberattack, yet more than 60% are unaware whether their school even has a cyber insurance plan.
  • All about the budget: Over half of educators and administrators said budget is a large or medium barrier in strengthening their institution’s cybersecurity posture.

IBM offers the following guidelines for increasing school cybersecurity:

How Schools Can Prepare for Ransomware

IBM Security X-Force suggests educational institutions consider the below recommendations to better prepare for, and respond to, cyberattacks like ransomware:

  • Prepare and budget for cybersecurity by creating incident response plans and exploring resources like cyber insurance.
  • Train staff, students and parents and provide clear guidelines for device usage, passwords, secure Wi-Fi connections and video conferencing.
  • Test and patch critical systems, especially those used across multiple schools to avoid widespread impact and make use of the cloud to securely store and backup data.
  • Embrace the Cloud, use cloud and SaaS tools when possible, and backup files offline to help ensure their recovery.
  • Stay educated and collaborate through information sharing to be aware of potential threats and vulnerabilities and build relationships with law enforcement for further collaboration.