Jenni Bergal / April 8, 2022
Alert to the heightened threat of Russian cyberattacks on U.S. targets after the invasion of Ukraine, the Seattle Public Schools district in the past several weeks has blocked web traffic from Russia, upgraded safety firewall services and hired an additional antivirus company.
“The biggest problem is that schools are an easy target,” said April Mardock, the district’s cybersecurity manager. “Russia could release a whole bunch of attack bots, and they can do a good job of using them to go after lots of computers remotely.”
Russian cyberattacks on U.S. schools could cause severe disruptions, Mardock noted.
“If schools are forced to go offline and parents can’t go to work because they have to stay home to care for their children, that could have a big impact on the local economy, law enforcement, all sorts of things,” she said. “If I was a bad guy trying to mess with the U.S. and I was using schools as my tool, I would probably try to scare parents, create a lot of fear and uncertainty and distrust. You’re looking to destabilize.”
School districts across the country are trying to shore up their cybersecurity after the…
