UK Education Sector Suffered Most from Ransomware in 2022
British schools were hit far more than those abroad
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Background for this topic.
Education comprises schools, colleges, universities, training providers, and the systems supporting teaching, assessment, administration, and research. Its distinctive assets include student and staff records, attendance and grades, learning materials, research data, payment information, and sometimes sensitive information about children or vulnerable people. Core dependencies include identity systems, email, learning platforms, campus networks, cloud services, online examination tools, and third-party platforms; disruption can affect teaching, assessment, safeguarding, or essential administration.
Security priorities include tightly scoped access for students, staff, contractors, and researchers; strong authentication; timely patching of internet-facing and classroom-managed devices; and careful control of data shared with service providers. Privacy requirements make retention, access logging, and protection of educational and research records material. Because education operates on fixed academic schedules and often has limited recovery windows, tested backups, offline or segregated recovery copies, and rehearsed procedures for isolating accounts or systems can support continuity. Vulnerability management should account for legacy devices and decentralized departmental technology, while incident response plans should preserve evidence and provide clear communications to affected communities.
British schools were hit far more than those abroad
APT36 targeted institutions with malicious Office documents distributing Crimson RAT
The Transparent Tribe threat actor has been linked to a set of weaponized Microsoft Office documents in attacks targeting the Indian education sector using a continuously maintained piece of malware called Crimson RAT
The North Korean threat actor known as the Lazarus Group has been observed shifting its focus and rapidly evolving its tools and tactics as part of a long-running activity called DeathNote