Cyber scammer tactics and threat vectorsĬybercriminals develop new tactics all the time, but they frequently return to their most basic (and often most effective) strategies. But without any proper cloud security to speak of, school district data is essentially up for grabs - and scammers aren’t missing the opportunity. Student data is especially sensitive information, which makes it all the more valuable to a cybercriminal.Īny way you look at it, school data security is increasingly synonymous with cloud security. In other words, a lot of student data is exposed which cybercriminals can easily access. Nearly all school districts are in the cloud using edtech tools like Google Workspace to facilitate lessons, perform administrative tasks, and collaborate remotely, but just 20% are implementing any cloud security solutions to match.
Without an understanding of the do’s and don’ts, they could easily fall victim to a scammer’s enticing tactics. K-12 students may be native to the internet, but they’re not always well-versed in cyber safety best practices. Why are scammers targeting school districts? There are three primary reasons: The next closest industry - retail - clocks in at just 580,000. According to Microsoft’s tracker of global threat activity, education is far and away the most impacted industry with nearly six million incidents in the past 30 days. Why? Because scammers, hackers, and other forms of cybercriminals are targeting school districts at an unprecedented rate. If any industry should be concerned about navigating the increasingly nefarious web of internet scams, it’s K-12 education.
Let’s walk you through the basics of cloud-based cyber scams and what you need to know to identify, investigate, and mitigate them in Google Workspace. When it comes to protecting student data, your school district can’t afford to take anything at face value.įortunately, there’s a smarter approach to data security. In fact, they’re becoming so daring, deceiving, and sophisticated that some schemes are nearly impossible to spot with the naked eye. But here’s the thing: Scammers aren’t always so easy to identify.