• Nine scary security stats educators everywhere should know

Malicious viruses and malware can quickly ruin a school day. After all, it’s  not easy to teach when your materials are locked in encrypted files that are accompanied by ransom demands.

The rise of “bring-your-own-device” (BYOD) policies and the increased practice of allowing remote access to teaching material outside of the classroom puts sensitive data at risk more than ever.

This includes your communications and collaborations systems. One data breach can happen from almost any part of your IT infrastructure. Keeping confidential data about your staff, pupils, and parents requires a level of protection that cloud-based communications solutions can provide.

  • question

  • Do your school's current phone, meeting and collaboration tools have what it take to keep you secure in 2020?

Related resources

0%

In 2018, the education sector accounted for 5% of all the incidents and data breaches. 1

50%

Millions of mobile PCs—notebooks/Macs, netbooks, tablets, and Chromebooks—are being purchased by U.S. K-12 schools every year, with the penetration of mobile PC devices used by U.S. teachers and students now above 50%. 2

50%

Over half of all digital breach incidents experienced by K-12 schools in 2018 were directly carried out or caused by that school’s staff or students. 3

  • And the problem keeps growing:

54%

From 2016 to 2017, the number of mobile malware variants increased by 54%, from 17,214 to 26,579. 4

415%

Mobile ransomware in particular soared by 415% in 2017. 6

    • 24,000 malicious mobile applications were blocked on devices per day in 2017! 5

    • No wonder why cloud migration in the education sector is soaring:

    50%

    50% of North American institutions of higher education have already adopted cloudbased collaboration systems to enhance the sharing of information across campus. 7

    25%

    In fact, the value of cloud computing in the education sector is expected to grow to $25.36 billion by 2021, at a remarkable compound annual growth rate of just over 25%. 8

    • Sources:

      1. Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report

      2. The State of K-12 Cybersecurity: 2018 Year In Review, EdTech Strategies, LLC/The K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center, 2019

      3. K-12 Cybersecurity 2018 Year in Review Part III: Cybersecurity Incidents, 2018

      4. Symantec Reports: Mobile Malware Increased by 54%, Solutions Review, 2018

      5. Three of the biggest Cybersecurity challenges facing the education sector, Fortinet, 2017

      6. Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, 2018

      7. Cloud Computing in Education with Cloud Volumes ONTAP, November, 2018

      8. Cloud Computing in Education with Cloud Volumes ONTAP, November, 2018