Sophos Sees Surge Of Ransomware Attacks Against Education Sector

This article was originally published by Tom Jowitt.

Education sector is battling a significant increase in the number of ransomware attacks, and in some cases is taking months to recover

Sophos in its annual ‘State of Ransomware in Education’ report, has painted a bleak security picture for the educational sector. The annual ‘State of Ransomware in Education’ report gathers data from around the world and summarises the impact of ransomware attacks on the education sector globally. The Sophos report found that education institutions – both higher and lower education – are increasingly being hit with ransomware, with 60 percent suffering attacks in 2021 compared to 44 percent in 2020.

Educational sector

As part of its State of Ransomware 2022 report, Sophos asked 730 education respondents – 320 in lower education and 410 in higher education – about their experiences with ransomware.

And it makes for grim reading for security staff.

The findings reveal that Education institutions faced the highest data encryption rate (73 percent) compared to other sectors (65 percent), and the longest recovery time, with 7 percent taking at least three months to recover – almost double the average time for other sectors (4 percent).

Higher education institutions in particular report the longest ransomware recovery time; while 40 percent say it takes at least one month to recover (20 percent for other sectors), 9 percent report it takes three to six months.

Indeed, education institutions report the highest propensity to experience operational and commercial impacts from ransomware attacks compared to other sectors; 97 percent of higher education and 94 percent of lower education respondents say attacks impacted their ability to operate, while 96 percent of higher education and 92 percent of lower education respondents in the private sector further report business and revenue loss.

Only 2 percent of education institutions recovered all of their encrypted data after paying a ransom (down from 4 percent in 2020); schools, on average, were able to recover 62 percent of encrypted data after paying ransoms (down from 68 percent in 2020).