Top 10 security threats to K-12 schools

Schools are a hot target for cyber criminals. With strapped IT teams and the host of data schools store, attackers can reap big benefits by aiming at schools. This is especially true because of how critical schools are and how important it is for education to be uninterrupted — bad actors capitalize on this and target schools at the most inconvenient times to increase the impact of their attack.

The threat landscape is constantly evolving. This makes it hard for schools to keep up. In this blog, we'll talk about the top 10 security threats K-12 schools face and offer ways to prevent your school from being the next target.

Common threat types

Malware

Malware — malicious software — comes in many forms and arrives in many ways. For example, malicious advertisements, or malvertisements, are ads on webpages that deliver malware. Students, especially younger ones, may be enticed by these and select them, putting your school's data at risk. Malware can also come from third-party downloads, email message attachments and more. Without proper protections that block access to malware and prevent their execution, your devices are at risk.

Phishing/social engineering

According to the 2025 CIS MS-ISAC K-12 Cybersecurity Report, attacks that occurred from July 2023 - December 2024 were mainly human-targeted — exceeding other techniques by 45%. And why not, since this doesn't require as much technical knowledge.

Phishing and other social engineering attacks rely on the human element to compromise your systems. Both children and adults can be targets, and attackers can use multiple techniques to obtain information. This could look like an email to a teacher where the attacker poses as an administrator. Or a fake "reset password" link that drives students to a malicious page.

Denial-of-service attacks

Schools offer more than just education. They provide meals, offer extra-curricular activities and support students in a variety of ways. Many of these critical services relies on their tech infrastructure. This means any interruption can wreak havoc, potentially making schools more desperate to return to regular operations.

Denial-of-service attacks, where attackers overwhelm your network infrastructure, can debilitate many of these services. These disruptions put student data at risk, yes, but their general well-being is in danger too.

Ransomware

Ransomware, like denial-of-service attacks, cause significant disruption to learning. Bad actors lock down systems, holding sensitive data for ransom. Even if the ransom is paid, there's no guarantee data isn't already exposed. The first quarter of 2025 saw a 69% surge in ransomware attacks in global education. This can lead to data breaches, lost time learning, financial consequences and more.

Social media

Social media opens the door for attackers to walk in. While many platforms try to limit the amount of bad actors, some fall through the cracks. They might even impersonate someone your end users know and trust. Information can travel, uncontrolled, through social media, which can lead to leaked information.

Insider threats

Like we already mentioned, most recent attacks were human-targeted. Some data loss from internal users is unintentional, caused by ignorance or neglect. Or sometimes, end users are deliberately trying to cause issues with or override your systems. For instance, students may want to remove devices restrictions, so they wipe the device. Or maybe teachers want to access student data for non-educational reasons. Humans can have complex motivations, even if your school has their best interests in mind — sometimes this leads to harm.

AI-based threats

AI has many applications, including for threat actors. Phishing emails may look more convincing because they were made with generative AI. Or AI models have issues themselves, leaking private user information. AI's relative infancy makes it harder for schools to control — and keep their data contained.

Supply chain risks

Schools use a variety of third-party software solutions for a host of applications. But can they trust that these vendors are safe? Unfortunately, not always. For example, a student information system platform inadequately secured their systems, leading to data breaches at schools. Often, it isn't enough to blindly trust your software vendors — additional protections are needed.

Insufficient budgets and training

IT budgets vary widely from school to school, district to district. This leaves teams having to do more with less, including without the software tools they need to stay productive and efficient. Though not necessarily a "threat" in the way we've been discussing, this introduces risk in itself. If your IT teams aren't given the tools to manage their device fleet, things fall through the cracks — and attackers will find ways to exploit this.

User training is important too. Some schools lag in their training policies, leaving users uninformed about potential risks. Both adults and children need age-appropriate cyber training to set them, and your systems, up for success.

Misconfiguration

IT teams vary in size and budget from school to school. Or administrations have incomplete cybersecurity policies. Sometimes this leads to improper configurations, like:

• The lack of Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions, and therefore device management, prevents the ability to disable unused services and set secure device settings.
• Limited or absent password, identity and access, and other security policies makes enforcing compliance and remediating non-compliance automatically difficult or impossible.
• Limited ways to filter malicious content or protect devices reduces proactive mitigation of risk vectors and prevention of network-based threats.

Security requires device management and transparency — after all, you can't secure what you can't see. We'll talk more about this in the next section.

How to keep your school secure

Cybersecurity is complex — so much so that we can't possibly dive into it in this blog. But we will highlight some key tools that significantly enhance your school's security posture.

Mobile device management

A good MDM is a foundational part of your security. Without it, you're groping in the dark. MDM allows you to:

• Assign users to devices
• Keep operating systems and apps up to date
• Inventory your devices and their installed software
• Set necessary restrictions and security policies, like a mandatory passcode
• Lock and/or wipe devices in case they're lost or stolen

MDM helps you configure your devices to meet your security standards. And if a device is targeted by one of the threats we've mentioned, what can you do? Along with your security software, your MDM can help you remediate the issue.

Content filtering

There's so much content online. Not all students can tell the difference between legitimate and malicious content. It's best to remove their judgement from the equation.

Content filtering blocks access to questionable or harmful content. If a student clicks on a phishing link — blocked. If they try to access adult websites — also blocked. This doesn't just protect them, it guards their data too.

Endpoint protection

No security stack is perfect. If an attack breaks your defenses, you'll need to reliably identify them for quick response. Endpoint protection software protects your devices by identifying and blocking threats. This includes novel threats too — threats you can't rely on traditional signatures to detect. Instead, you'll need behavioral analytics to identify suspicious behavior.

Combining MDM, content filtering and endpoint protection puts your school well on its way to preventing these top 10 threats.