Cyberattacks on American school systems have become a more common occurrence in 2022. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, cyberattacks have had more of an effect on the functioning of schools. Since schools have been relying more on technology, cyberattacks pose a greater risk. In the Albuquerque school district, for example, cyberattacks canceled classes for two days. The school faculty could not access the district’s student database because of a ransomware attack.

A district’s student database is crucial for a school’s daily operations since it contains the information of which adults are authorized to pick up or drop off children. Unfortunately, public school systems have a small budget for hiring people with expertise in cybersecurity. When a cyberattack occurs, school systems have great difficulty repairing the damaged cyberinfrastructure.

Smaller schools are targets of ransomware groups, even though the news mostly reports on cyberattacks on larger schools. Because smaller schools have less money to invest on protecting their cyberinfrastructure, they are especially vulnerable to cyberattacks from ransomware groups.

School systems have seen a trend in recording important information such as attendance and assignments digitally. However, this trend has exposed schools to cyberattacks.