2020 State of K-12 Cybersecurity Report

A Year Defined By COVID-19 Offered A Stress Test On K-12 IT Resilience And Security

While policymakers and school leaders have historically demonstrated a reasonable duty of care in protecting members of their school communities from physical security risks, natural disasters, extreme weather events, and now public health risks, too.

Unfortunately, such commitment has largely been absent when it comes to school-related cybersecurity risks.

This infographic is developed in partnership with the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center, based on the data from its 2020 K-12 Cybersecurity Year in Review Report. It breaks down the total number of cybersecurity incidents affecting K-12 education industries in 2020, in which Doug Levin's research found 408 publicly disclosed incidents — a 17% increase year-over-year.

Key Findings:

• 36% of all cyber incidents resulted in a data breach or unauthorized disclosure of sensitive data
• Ransomware accounted for 12% of the total cyber incidents
• Worldwide cybercrime losses amounted to a total of $3.5 billion
• A new form of cyber incident was born--online class/meeting invasion, popularly referred to as "Zoombombing"