IBM has awarded a total of $3 million in grants to U.S. schools to help them strengthen their defenses against ransomware attacks. All U.S. K-12 public school districts were eligible to apply for the grants, which are intended to help school officials develop defenses, prepare for, and proactively respond to cyberattacks.
The grants, each worth $500,000, have been awarded to six school districts – in Florida (Brevard Public Schools), New York (Poughkeepsie City School District), Georgia (KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools), Texas (Sheldon Independent School District), California (Newhall School) District) and Colorado (Denver Public Schools).
IBM reported that the applicants were evaluated based on the «cybersecurity needs and experiences, community resources and potential risks».
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The IBM Education Security Preparedness Grant will be provided by IBM Service Corps, a group founded in 2008. This group will visit school districts and review current attitudes toward cybersecurity, while also creating assessments to identify “pain points” that need to be addressed to combat ransomware attacks.
Ransomware is a type of malware that has proven to be extremely profitable for hackers in recent years. In the case of a ransomware attack, victims are locked out of their systems and then blackmailed by the attackers into paying a ransom to receive a decryption key. The ransom is usually demanded in cryptocurrency, which can amount to several million dollars.
The decryption key that victims receive after paying the ransom may or may not work. If victims refuse to pay the required ransom, they may face a double-blackmail tactic – in which any confidential data stolen during the initial stages of a ransomware attack is leaked online or put up for sale.
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Ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly common, claiming victims all over the world. A recent example is the hack of Colonial Pipeline (the company that manages the largest fuel pipeline in the US), which caused a fuel shortage. Another case is the ransomware attack on the Irish Health Service (HSE), which impacted numerous patients.
When it comes to schools, 2020 was a “groundbreaking” year for cyberattacks, according to the K-12 Cybersecurity Leadership Symposium. In the organization’s latest report on K-12 security, the group says the attacks have been characterized by “significant gaps and critical failures in the resilience and security of the K-12 school technology ecosystem.”
IBM says that the applications it received revealed a huge disparity in cybersecurity budgets, with half of school districts able to raise less than $100,000 for cybersecurity spending – a particularly concerning fact for smaller districts, which face the same cybersecurity challenges as larger districts, which can spend millions of dollars.
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More than 7,800 U.S. schools and over 4 million students were represented in the applications. Overall, more than 40% of school districts said they had already experienced a ransomware attack and more than 55% said they did not have security training programs in place.
Those who receive grants will start working with IBM this summer.
Christopher Scott, Director of Security Innovation in the Office of the CISO at IBM, said: “It is extremely encouraging to see how many school districts are taking an active role in improving cybersecurity. This is an important decision as schools continue to operate remotely and students look to return to the classroom.”
Information source: zdnet.com
