Dive Brief:

• New research from a variety of organizations and companies shows cyber attacks are on the rise.
• According to research done by Dell for the company's annual threat report, a 73% increase in "unique malware samples" occurred between 2014 and 2015.
• For schools, district IT professionals need to stay on guard and act in a preventative and proactive way against schemes like phishing and web-based attacks like malvertising.

Dive Insight:

School and district tech leaders, principals and superintendents should note that the increase in hacking and cyber crime calls for a proactive, preventative approach. Problems like Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks from hackers can make Internet connections cease functioning for entire school systems. Getting them back up and running can take days or even weeks. 

When it comes to online security, prevention is key. Districts often have more tech resources at their disposal than they realize. School systems can take initiative by examining their existing options for data security. These can include built-in detection and prevention firewalls that can be utilized to safeguard against attacks. Websites Bugcrowd.com can also be used to recruit “good hackers” in order to find out where certain insecurities lie in cyber infrastructure.

Cybersecurity has been a big focus in higher ed for a while now, with institutions focusing on creating comprehensive protection plans.