17 Sep Could your school handle a full-scale cyberattack?
It is the question that every education establishment in the UK should ask itself on a daily basis: If your school or college came under cyberattack, do you know how you would handle it?
The very mention of the word ransomware is enough to send nervous shivers up the spine of any school governor, aware that a digital attack on personal data would be disastrous for the reputation of any education facility.
So, are you actually ready for an attack?
Most modern day hackers target computers via spam emails. These emails often feature hidden code with malware, known as ransomware that can encrypt and lock your computer if opened. Academia and our partners at Sophos have long championed the steps you need to take to prevent potential attacks, but what about if you actually encounter one?
Ultimately, ransomware and other forms of malware cannot get to files that only you access via a browser to encrypt them. Therefore the solution if hacked is a simple one; you just wipe your machine and you will not lose any data.
If you are hacked, the outlook is grim.
During a ransomware attack, a complicated file encryption program is installed on any office computer – which can, under the right circumstances infiltrate your entire system. Ransomware takes control essentially as an administrator, and thus has the power to hold the user’s machine and data for ransom. In most cases, the user has had to pay up to release precious information and data files without the humiliation going public. And worse – for many ransomware victims, they pay the ransom and the hacker still never releases the files they hold hostage.
There really is only one solution to cyberattacks: prevent them before they start.
Sophos are our partners for combating every kind of cybersecurity threat in the modern market, offering simple and affordable advanced protection for educational institutions. The simple, all-in-one protection software and hardware solutions Sophos offers aim to keep your user data, network, and apps protected on an affordable and efficient basis, keeping your faculty, students, and administrators safe, across your school, branch, or remote locations – no matter where they are.
Sophos XG Firewall offers end-to-end protection for your classrooms and labs, blocking unknown threats with a comprehensive suite of advanced protection. Optimized for schools, it delivers all the protection, filtering, and monitoring insights you need in a single, affordable appliance.
How Can Academia Help?
We partner with Sophos to offer security-first software and hardware, drawing from over 30 years of experience in IT security. Speak to us today to learn about the services we can offer your education organization or facility on info@oldsite.academia.co.uk, or call 01992 703 900.
