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UK education charity Harris Federation struck by ransomware attack
Tuesday, March 30, 2021
The attack targeting the Harris Foundation came after the U.K. National Cyber Security Center issued a warning on March 23 that the education sector was being targeted by ransomware attacks.
“Ransomware is a highly profitable and virtually riskless criminals’ business. Usage of simple technical precautions and payments in cryptocurrencies make most of the ransomware campaigns technically uninvestigable and bolsters impunity,” Ilia Kolochenko, founder and chief executive of web security company ImmuniWeb, told SiliconANGLE. “Cybercriminals are shrewd and pragmatic, and will deliberately launch attacks on the most vulnerable victims including schools and colleges.”
Unlike large universities, which can afford spending considerable budgets on cybersecurity, Kolochenko added, primary schools often struggle to get budgets even for the very foundational security controls, let alone advance cyber defense solutions.
“Worse, such victims commonly have no choice but to pay the ransom from modest school funds, leaving no money for other activities,” he said. “Government should urgently intervene with cyber training, financial and technical support in the U.K. educational sector. For example, when buying security software, a volume-discount for all schools in the U.K. could be huge and make even premium security products affordable.” Read Full Article
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