As a former CIO in Higher Ed, seeing the number of schools being disrupted by ransomware is disturbing. It's even more disturbing to see that attackers successfully encrypt schools data backups (the most of any industry), slowing the recovery process and school operations.
The median ransom payment for universities and colleges over the past year was $4.4 million. Because they want to resume operations as fast as possible, it may lead to pressure to pay. But there are other factors that may contribute to the payouts.
Understaffing is an issue. Many good techs don't stay long in education (the pay isn't competitive) and the ones that do are overwhelmed.
Budgeting is another issue. I recall having to make repeated appeals for funding to upgrade desperately needed system upgrades. However what's worst part of this story? It's who ends up paying for these security breaches. I can't say that in all cases it's the students, but I do know that the cost of tuition never goes down.
https://edscoop.com/ransomware-survey-sophos-2024/
