With widespread internet access, mobile devices, online learning platforms and smart classroom tools, hackers have many ways to gain access to critical systems. This has helped make the education sector the fastest-growing target of cyberattacks worldwide, with the industry recently seeing a 75% year-over-year increase in the average number of weekly attacks per organization.1 In 2024, 1.8 million records were affected by ransomware attacks on the education industry.2 The average ransom demand on an educational institution topped $847,000.