"Ransomware May Have Cost US Schools Over $6bn in 2020"

Scores of ransomware attacks on US schools and colleges last year may have cost them over $6bn, according to a new report published by researchers at Comparitech.  The researchers analyzed the 77 attacks reported by educational institutions nationwide in 2020 and calculated the cost to these victims from estimated downtime and recovery time.  The researchers found that the average downtime was seven days, and the average recovery time was 55.4 days. Comparitech claimed that 2020 saw 1,740 schools and colleges and potentially 1.4m students affected by ransomware, an increase of 39% and 67% respectively on 2019 figures. This is despite the actual number of attacks in 2020 coming in 20% lower than the figure for the previous year.  The researchers stated that this suggests that adversaries targeted larger school districts with bigger annual budgets, hoping to cause more significant disruption and increase their ransom payment demands.  Ransom demands in 2020 varied dramatically from just $10,000 to over $1m, although the researchers were only able to find mention of these for nine out of the 77 attacks it analyzed.  From January 2018 to June 2021, Comparitech logged 222 separate ransomware attacks on US schools and colleges, impacting 3,880 schools and nearly three million students.  Downtime alone is estimated to have cost these victim organizations over $17.3bn, with recovery costs adding millions, if not billions, to the total, the researchers stated.  

Infosecurity reports: "Ransomware May Have Cost US Schools Over $6bn in 2020"