Education Sector Makes Progress in Defending Against Ransomware Attacks

The education sector is making strides in defending against ransomware attacks, according to a new report by Sophos. The report, based on a survey of 441 IT and cybersecurity leaders, shows that the sector has made measurable progress in limiting the impact of ransomware, with fewer ransom payments, reduced costs, and faster recovery rates. However, despite these gains, the sector still faces significant challenges, including widespread stress and burnout among IT teams, and a growing reliance on digital technologies that create new vulnerabilities.

Key Takeaways:

• The education sector has made significant progress in defending against ransomware attacks, with 67% of lower education institutions and 38% of higher education institutions reporting a success rate in stopping attacks before encryption.
• Ransom demands have fallen 73% in the last year, with average payments dropping from $6M to $800K in lower education and from $4M to $463K in higher education.
• Average recovery costs have plummeted by 77% in higher education and 39% in lower education, with lower education reporting the highest recovery bill across all industries surveyed.
• Despite progress, 64% of victims reported missing or ineffective protection solutions, 66% cited a lack of people (either expertise or capacity) to stop attacks, and 67% admitted to having security gaps.
• AI-powered threats are becoming increasingly prevalent, with 22% of ransomware attacks originating from phishing.
• Higher education institutions, custodians of AI research and large language model datasets, remain a prime target, with exploited vulnerabilities (35%) and security gaps (45%) as leading weaknesses.
• Human toll: Every institution with encrypted data reported impacts on IT staff, with over one in four staff members taking leave after an attack, nearly 40% reporting heightened stress, and more than one-third feeling guilty they could not prevent the breach.

Statistics:

• 67% of lower education institutions reported a success rate in stopping attacks before encryption.
• 38% of higher education institutions reported a success rate in stopping attacks before encryption.
• Ransom demands fell 73% in the last year, with average payments dropping from $6M to $800K in lower education and from $4M to $463K in higher education.
• Average recovery costs plummeted by 77% in higher education and 39% in lower education.
• 64% of victims reported missing or ineffective protection solutions.
• 66% cited a lack of people (either expertise or capacity) to stop attacks.
• 67% admitted to having security gaps.
• 22% of ransomware attacks originated from phishing.
• 35% of higher education institutions reported exploited vulnerabilities.
• 45% of higher education institutions reported security gaps.
• Over one in four staff members took leave after an attack.
• Nearly 40% of staff members reported heightened stress.
• More than one-third of staff members felt guilty they could not prevent the breach.

Sources:

• Sophos State of Ransomware in Education report, 2025.
• Vendor-agnostic survey of 441 IT and cybersecurity leaders.
• The organizations surveyed ranged from 100-5,000 employees and across 17 countries.
• The survey was conducted between January and March 2025.