In the fall of 2017, NBC News reported on the difficult decision that Columbia Falls High School Superintendent, Steve Bradshaw, had to make. In this quiet town near Glacier National Park in Montana, the high school was hit by a ransomware attack. Bradshaw was receiving anonymous messages from a group self-named as “The Dark Overlord” threatening to kill the students of the school and release their personal information if the school did not pay the hackers a ransom. The group even hacked the security cameras in the school to watch their every move as law enforcement officials worked to facilitate negotiations. The school decided not to pay the hackers and constantly worried if this decision would result in their information being released. Clearly, the cyber criminals had the upper hand.
Columbia Falls High School fell victim to an epidemic that affects 1 in 3 Americans each year, or every 39 seconds—the enormous threat of cyber crime. The damage that these online attacks have caused is colossal. In 2017, the average cost of a data breach was $3.62 million dollars.
And it doesn’t happen in obvious ways—the average length of time it takes for organizations to identify a data breach is 191 days. A lot of damage can be done in a span of time this large.
Imagine the massive amount of public information that lives on the Internet. These (roughly) eight billion pages make up only 4 percent of total web content. The other 96 percent of the digital universe lives in the “Dark Web,” a place that search engines can’t find. This underground world requires an anonymous browser to access. An article from CSOonline shared that the Dark Web is a market that sells credit card numbers, drugs, weapons, counterfeit money, stolen subscription information, hacking software, Netflix accounts and much more. The Dark Web is a dense and daunting place, but there are ways that you and your school can decrease the chances of falling into the traps of this underground world.
Start today. Even though cyber criminals are highly-educated and often fly under the radar, you can increase your protections immediately. Here are a few important steps you should take:
Cybersecurity is not something that can be overlooked. A significant amount of time and attention to detail is required to protect your information from being exposed to cyber criminals, but it’s entirely necessary. By using smart passwords, caution with the links you follow and updated security software, your school will be better prepared to outsmart the hackers.