Dive Brief:

• Windows will roll out its Anniversary Update next week, including Windows 10 Pro Education and Windows 10 Education among the variety of options hitting shelves.
• ZDNet reports the Anniversary editions will have education-focused features including an app called Set Up School PCs and Take a Test, and the Education operating system will come with Device Guard, Credential Guard, Branche Cache and Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection.
• Companies that sell computers will be able to install Windows 10 Pro Education for schools ordering with K-12 academic licenses, and schools that already have those licenses can upgrade automatically.

Dive Insight:

As schools consider new technology purchases and upgrades, security should always be top-of-mind. Education institutions are at particular risk of cyber breaches because hackers know they have a good deal of personal information on file and they do not generally invest as much in security as, for example, retail companies. A small, rural district in Western New York was a victim of a cyberattack that exposed the personal information of current and former employees as well as contractors. A South Carolina district recently paid about $8,000 as ransom to get its hacker-encrypted files back.

Schools are increasingly vulnerable to ransomware, as it’s called, which eliminates schools’ ability to access their own files until someone can either break the encryption code or pay the cyberattacker’s ransom. In the case of the South Carolina district, a little-used server in the Facilities Department was identified as a vulnerability by hackers. File backups and cloud storage can help schools minimize the negative impact of ransomware while IT officials address the problem.