According to Schools Week, this attack is much more than a phishing email. A cold caller claims they’re from the ‘Department of Education’ in order to extract email addresses – often citing personal information about the head teacher to help their case. This change in behaviour shows that cyber criminals are now willing to work much harder to hit their target.

The hackers then use these to send Zip files, which claim to contain anything from ‘exam guidelines to mental health assessments’.  Once opened, these release a virus which quickly encrypts all files. The malware then demands up to £8,000 (over $9,700) in ransom.

It is therefore vital that schools review their data backup procedures to ensure that they not only have copies of all critical data, but can restore their data smoothly in the event of a ransomware incident.

And Backup is just the first step; if schools have the ability to recover lost data quickly, they can keep the school functioning with minimal downtime and interruption, and without paying a ransom.

Schools are also advised not to pay, as research has shown that a quarter of organisations do not receive their data even after payment. A blended security approach is what schools need – educating users, updating all software to the latest patched versions, installing AV, and most importantly, ensuring backups are in place.

Talk to us today about how we can help you to protect and back up your data.

Blog by: Datto