Educational institutions worldwide are facing an unprecedented wave of sophisticated cyber attacks, with the education sector ranked as the third-most targeted industry in Q2 2024, according to Microsoft. The threat actors’ attack chain begins with carefully crafted phishing campaigns, often utilizing QR codes embedded in communications that appear to be legitimate educational materials such as financial aid forms, parking passes, or administrative notifications. The malware employs multiple modular components that work in conjunction to maintain stealth, exfiltrate sensitive research data, and potentially deploy ransomware payloads that have cost US educational institutions an estimated $2.5 billion in downtime alone since 2018. Between April and September 2024, educational institutions consistently ranked among the top three most attacked industries by China-aligned APT groups, top two for North Korea-aligned actors, and within the top six for both Iran and Russia-aligned threat operators. This technique allows the malware to establish persistence while remaining undetected, as the injected code operates within the context of legitimate processes that security solutions typically trust. In the United States, the situation appears equally dire, with more than one cyber incident occurring per school day between 2016 and 2022, according to the K12 Security Information Exchange (SIX). ESET researchers documented cases where APT35 operators inject malicious code into innocuous system processes, effectively bypassing endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions. Cyber Security News is a Dedicated News Platform For Cyber News, Cyber Attack News, Hacking News & Vulnerability Analysis. With years of experience under his belt in Cyber Security, he is covering Cyber Security News, technology and other news. The scale of this crisis is starkly illustrated by recent statistics showing 71% of UK secondary schools and a staggering 97% of universities experienced serious security breaches over the past year—significantly higher than the 50% rate observed in businesses. These include expansive, porous networks connecting thousands of users, repositories of highly monetizable personal and research data, and critically limited security resources. The Iran-aligned group Ballistic Bobcat (also known as APT35 or Mint Sandstorm) has been observed implementing multi-stage attacks that specifically target educational networks. Their methodology involves process injection techniques where malicious code is inserted into legitimate system processes to evade detection. One particularly sophisticated attack vector involves advanced persistent threat (APT) groups employing complex evasion techniques. Tushar is a Cyber security content editor with a passion for creating captivating and informative content. ESET researchers have detected a perfect storm of vulnerabilities making educational institutions particularly attractive targets. This alarming trend reveals a strategic shift in threat actors’ focus, as they increasingly exploit the unique vulnerabilities inherent to academic environments.
This Cyber News was published on cybersecuritynews.com. Publication date: Mon, 14 Apr 2025 23:00:10 +0000