The US DHS warns about security risks for online learning

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a warning about potential cybercrimes targeting schools that switched to online learning during COVID-19. The risks include: identity and login information theft; cybercriminals obtaining discarded computers that still had cached data on their drives; extortion by using confidential student or employee data to blackmail either the educational institution or an individual; and denial-of-service attacks in exchange for ransom payments. Given that these threats have been seen in the past, employees working on schools’ IT security and defence systems are being asked to take proper precautions.