DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) is a form of attack that keeps overwhelming a system until the server crashes, and this form of attack has risen by over 350% as compared to the corresponding month of 2019 against educational resources.

With more and more people being forced to go online for classes and for work, networks are primarily being targeted these days, and educational resources account for being a major victim of such network attacks.

While DDoS attacks are a major threat, they aren’t the only form of attacks that educational resources face. Between January and June 2020 alone, 1,68,550 different users reported various forms of attacks disguised in the form of online learning and video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Moodle and so on. Educators also encountered phishing attacks and fake emails that looked very authentic and could fool anyone into easily giving up their data.

“Remote learning became a necessity for billions of students this past spring, and many educational institutions were forced to make the transition with little or no preparation. The ensuing increase in the popularity of online educational resources coupled with this lack of preparedness made the educational sector an ideal target for cyber attacks. Moving forward this fall, as many schools and universities plan to conduct classes online—at least part of the time — it’s critical these organizations take steps to secure their digital learning environments,” says Alexander Gutnikov, security expert at Kaspersky.