Schools Already Struggled With Cybersecurity. Then Came Covid-19

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.wired.com/story/schools-already-struggled-cybersecurity-then-came-covid-19/

By Lily Hay Newman
Security
Wired.com
July 1, 2020

THIS TIME LAST year, Jaggar Henry was enjoying the summer like so many 
other teens. The 17-year-old had a job, was hanging out with friends on 
the weekends, and just generally spending a lot of time online. But then, 
at the end of July, Henry combed his hair, donned a slightly oversized 
Oxford shirt, and appeared before his school district's board in Polk 
County, Florida—one of the larger school districts in the US—to outline a 
slew of security flaws he had found in its digital systems. His 
presentation was the culmination of months of work and focused on software 
used by more than 100,000 students.

Those vulnerabilities have been fixed, but Henry, who now works full time 
on education technology, says that his experience illustrates the 
challenges facing school districts across the United States—and a problem 
that's grown more acute in the wake of Covid-19.

The coronavirus pandemic has had major cybersecurity implications around 
the world. Tailored phishing attacks and contact-tracing scams prey on 
fear and uncertainty. Fraudsters are targeting economic relief and 
unemployment payments. The stakes are higher than ever for ransomware 
attacks that target health care providers and other critical 
infrastructure. For businesses, the transition to remote work has created 
new exposures and magnified existing ones.

School districts in the United States already had significant 
cybersecurity shortcomings. They often lack dedicated funding and skilled 
personnel to continuously vet and improve cybersecurity defenses. As a 
result, many schools make basic system setup errors or leave old 
vulnerabilities unpatched—essentially propping a door open for hackers and 
scammers. Schools and students also face potential exposure from 
third-party education technology firms that fail to adequately secure data 
in their platforms.

[...]

--
Subscribe to InfoSec News
https://www.infosecnews.org/subscribe-to-infosec-news/
Follow InfoSec News on Twitter
https://twitter.com/infosecnews_
Follow InfoSec News on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/infosecnews/