Schools are increasingly attractive targets for cybercriminals. They hold sensitive personal data on students and families, often have underfunded IT departments, and operate systems that may not have been updated in years. Ransomware attacks on school districts have grown significantly, with some incidents shutting down operations for days or weeks.
Understanding the threat landscape doesn't require technical expertise. What it requires is a willingness to ask honest questions about where data lives, who has access to it, and what protections are in place.
Multi-factor authentication, regular software updates, and encrypted backups are the foundation of school cybersecurity. These are not exotic measures. They are baseline protections that significantly reduce vulnerability to the most common attack types.
Password hygiene is another area where schools consistently have gaps. Default passwords on network equipment, shared login credentials for shared computers, and staff reusing passwords across personal and professional accounts all create exploitable weaknesses.
Most successful cyberattacks on schools begin with a phishing email. Someone clicks a link or opens an attachment, and that single action gives an attacker a foothold in the network. Staff training that helps people recognize phishing attempts is one of the highest-return investments in cybersecurity.
Training should be regular, practical, and reinforced with simulated phishing tests. When staff are caught by a simulated phishing email, use the moment as a learning opportunity rather than a punitive one. The goal is awareness, not blame.
Every school should have a documented cyber incident response plan. When an attack occurs, the speed and quality of the response depends almost entirely on decisions made before the incident. Who is notified first? Who has authority to take systems offline? Who communicates with families?
Tabletop exercises that walk the response team through a simulated incident reveal gaps in the plan before those gaps become expensive. Even a two-hour tabletop exercise with the right people in the room can significantly improve response readiness.