Universities have become a popular target for ransomware attacks, so much so that earlier this year, three universities fell victim to a ransomware attack in the same week. With the urgency of shifting to online learning, many education institutions have found themselves extremely ill prepared in the face of cyber attacks. Distance learning has massively opened up a huge attack surface - we are using unhardened collaboration applications like Zoom and at the same time, machines are now remote, removing control over updating and patching from the organization, says Andrew Homer, vice president of security strategy at Morphisec. Yet cybercriminals aren’t getting any slower at deploying attacks, and higher education has become one of the most targeted industries for ransomware attacks over the last few years.

The beginning of June saw a sudden surge in University-targeting ransomware attacks. Michigan State University, UCSF and Colombia College were all hit with ransomware from the NetWalker family within the same week. While each institution dealt with their network’s compromise differently, this “University Ransomware Week” was certainly eye-opening for higher education institutions who may need to rethink the security solutions and measures they have implemented.