We’ve seen an alarming rise in the number of cyberattacks against universities in the last few years, particularly as schools moved entirely or partially online during the COVID-19 pandemic. CSO reports that cyberattacks on education and research targets increased an astonishing 75 percent between 2020 and 2021. These attacks threaten to take critical functions offline, disrupting teaching and research, and put sensitive data at risk. And with many universities coping with already reduced budgets, paying to recover lost data can make a crunch worse.
As schools prepare for the fall semester, now is a good time for institutions to review their cybersecurity defenses and consider bolstering them. Here’s a look at why universities are being targeted, how cyberattacks are impacting universities, and strategies for mitigating the threat.
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