As millions of students return to classrooms and campuses around the world, the education sector faces a daunting challenge: an unprecedented surge in cyber attacks, making it the most targeted industry for 2025.
Check Point Research reports that, from January through July 2025, educational organizations worldwide experienced an average of 4,356 weekly attacks per organization – a staggering 41% increase from the previous year.
This rising tide of threats coincides with seasonal milestones, such as the back-to-school period, placing schools, universities, and colleges directly in the crosshairs of cybercriminals.
Global Hotspots and Attack Trends
Cyberattacks on educational institutions are now a truly global phenomenon, affecting both developed and developing regions.
In the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, organizations bore the brunt of attacks, with an average of 7,869 weekly incidents, up 31% year-over-year.
Meanwhile, North America saw the steepest rise, with a 67% increase, reaching 3,047 attacks per organization per week. Europe and Africa weren’t spared, reporting jumps of 48% and 56% respectively.
Country-level data reveals the extent of the threat. Italy reported an astonishing 8,593 weekly attacks per organization (an 82% increase), while Hong Kong saw numbers soar by 210% to 5,399 attacks.
The United States and Portugal also faced significant surges, with weekly attacks rising by 75% and 80% respectively. These statistics underscore the education sector as a prime target for cyber adversaries, regardless of geographical location.
Phishing Attacks Exploit Back-to-School Rush
Cybercriminals are capitalizing on the seasonal spike in digital activity as students and staff reengage with online platforms. In July 2025 alone, over 18,000 domains related to schools, universities, and students were registered; notably, one in every 57 was found to be malicious or suspicious.
Attackers use academic-themed phishing campaigns to trick users, such as fake university login pages and payment-update scams.
For example, recent campaigns have distributed phishing emails with files that mimic school credentials and redirected victims to fraudulent Microsoft Outlook-style login pages, aimed at harvesting sensitive data.
In another case, staff at a U.S. university received PDF prompts to “update MFA settings”—a ploy that led to a clone of the Microsoft login portal, engineered to steal credentials.
Technical Vulnerabilities and Countermeasures
Schools present a “perfect storm” for attackers due to dispersed user populations, high dependence on shared credentials, modest IT budgets, and access to valuable student and research data.
Technical vectors include social engineering, malicious scripts on websites, exploitation of unpatched software vulnerabilities, and compromised accounts through stolen credentials. Ransomware, infostealers, and backdoors are just a few forms of malicious code targeting education systems.
Experts stress the importance of layered defenses to stem the tide. Recommendations include reinforcing phishing and security awareness, enforcing robust authentication protocols (such as Multi-Factor Authentication), vigilant monitoring of new academic domains for impersonation, frequent system patching, and deploying advanced threat prevention solutions that block malicious emails and files before they can do harm.
With global attacks increasing by more than 40%, educational institutions must act proactively to safeguard students, staff, and their critical digital assets.
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