The number of ransomware attacks on both K-12 and higher education institutions increased in 2021, according to a new report from Sophos, a global cybersecurity leader.

As cyberattacks become more frequent and costly to remediate, the COVID-19 pandemic has spread state and local governments’ (SLG) cyber defenses thin and just 18 states have a specified cybersecurity budget, according to a report by cybersecurity awareness training platform KnowBe4.

Ransomware continues to be the biggest issue for most K-12 school districts across the country, according to Doug Levin, co-founder and national director of the K12 Security Information Exchange.

A recent survey on the State of Ransomware found that ransomware attacks are rising in both frequency and complexity, with 72 percent of the survey’s respondents saying that they have experienced an uptick in the volume, complexity, or severity of cyberattacks.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released a private industry notification (PIN) warning local governments and government services that ransomware will likely “strain” their capabilities if not prevented.

A new report published by the non-profit K12 Security Information Exchange (K12 SIX) finds that while the number of publicly-disclosed cyber incidents at K-12 schools decreased in 2021, the actual number is “surely bleaker,” emphasizing the need for more and better information sharing about K-12 cyber incidents.

While 2021 certainly had some attention-getting ransomware attacks, a new report from anti-virus software company Emsisoft found that ransomware attacks dropped in 2021 for both state and local governments (SLGs) and educational organizations.

Finalsite, an internet software company that provides website design, hosting, and content management solutions to school districts announced that a ransomware attack impacting 5,000 of its total 8,000 global customers.

The Broward County Public School (BCPS) District is in the process of notifying about 50,000 people that a ransomware attack earlier this year resulted in unauthorized access to some district systems that may have potentially included the sensitive information of some faculty staff and students.

Howard University has been hit by a ransomware cyberattack, the university confirmed after the information technology team detected unusual activity on the university’s network on Sept. 3.