As the latest Atlas VPN research shows, cybercriminals attacked the field of education over 356,000 during the last academic year.
In 2019, students were illegally downloading pre-written essays, with 234,000 of them being malware-infected. Other types of infected material included textbooks (2,080 English and 1,213 math), dictionaries, and 870 pieces of literature.
Rachel Welsh, COO of Atlas VPN, shares her thoughts on why hackers are actively exploiting the field of education: "Attacking schools is convenient: instead of having to intercept hundreds of devices separately, they hack the whole network. Educational institutions should receive proper training in cybersecurity in order to prevent these issues from happening. It should also be ensured that expensive textbooks are accessible for every student, so they do not have to download anything illegally."
By hacking the school's network, hackers intercept every single device connected to the network. This way, they steal sensitive information from students, teachers, and the school's staff, demanding ransom payments.
The full report also covers how hackers use cryptojacking technology to exploit students and lists the most common types of attacks schools suffer from.
