As the growing concerns over enterprise ransomware mount in Missouri K12 school districts, more superintendents are seeing this problem as something that is outside the duties of their district technology director. School technology IT support services should be about focusing on the needs of teachers, staff, and students and making sure the tech tools are assisting in the learning process. Unfortunately, cybercrime has been a huge distraction for many Missouri School Administrators, technology directors, and staff throughout the state. Schools do not have the expertise or tools to even know where to get started with a response to a cybercrime compromise. We recently worked on a ransomware recovery project with a public school a few weeks ago where the superintendent was told by the FBI that approximately five Missouri public schools were being compromised a month. “It’s not a matter of if, it’s when” are you going to have to deal with ransomware at your school district. When that day comes, it's important to have the right team on your side that has dealt with these issues.
Cybercrime is a real business. Nothing will teach you this more than when the criminals give you an 800 number and email address to contact them after the attack if you need assistance. WHAT? Are you kidding me? Yes, you read that right. The criminals have customer service after they take hundreds of thousands of dollars from you. Why not? It’s a business, right?
One thing we hear in the field is that some IT companies are telling school districts that if you buy our products, you will never get ransomware. This is not accurate at all. IT companies should be offering you solutions to better protect your school, but with 9 in 10 victims of cybercrime having up-to-date firewalls and anti-virus, you might ask, “How this is happening?” The facts are, that your network is only as strong as its weakest point. With more and more outside vendors, like HVAC, Electrical, and Security contractors needing access to your systems you may have a lot of weak spots in your network that you are unaware of. IT vendors and staff that have never directly dealt with a recovery don’t know where to get started. Also, your staff needs ongoing training on what to look for and how to avoid traps.
So what should you do? Well, if you haven’t recently performed a vulnerability assessment of your network - then get moving now. It’s time to call Midwest Computech and talk to one of our solutions experts on what you need to do next. Don’t wait around – Your district could be next even if you’ve already had an attack.
Call us at 573-499-6928 or 660-826-4700 to talk to an expert today.