The growth of cyber attacks on Polish schools

Ten post dostępny jest także w języku: polski

According to a recent Check Point report, cyber attacks on educational and research institutions in the United States, Europe and Asia are growing at double-digit rates. Polish schools are more than twice as vulnerable to attacks as other industries.

Up to 950 attempts per week

According to Check Point’s data, in Poland, in the last quarter, on average, each educational institution experienced between 800 and 950 attacks a week, more than twice as many as in other industries. In Poland, compared to the beginning of August, the attacks in September increased by only 4%, while in the long run they decreased. In the first week of September an average of 837 attacks on the educational unit was detected, 30 more than a month earlier. A record number of attacks on educational institutions in Poland was recorded in the third week of July, with an average of 955. The increase in the number of attacks was caused by, among other things, returning to schools and switching to remote education.

The coronavirus pandemic forced not only remote work, but often also remote learning. The global numbers are staggering, but the trend seems clear: hackers see both students returning to class and schools and universities returning to work as an easy target.  – comments Wojciech Głażewski, head of the Polish branch of Checkpoint.

The largest increase in attacks in the USA

Globally, American schools are the most vulnerable educational institutions. In the last three months the frequency of cyber-attacks there has increased by 30%, and the most common attack is DDoS. In the case of Europe, the number of cyber-attacks has increased by 24% over the period under review, while hackers in this case have focused on complex attempts to scam data. For comparison, the increase in the number of attacks, in all sectors in Europe, is only 9%. The smallest increase in attacks on educational institutions was recorded in Asia (21%).

Email is the main factor spreading threats to Polish education. It is responsible for 72% of the attacks. In more than two thirds of e-mail attacks, malicious files contain the .doc extension, 16% are exe files and 6% are .xlsx files