At least 17 school districts and colleges were hit by ransomware attacks between Jan. 1 and April 8. The attacks have not been pandemic-related, but that could change soon, says Chris Hinkley, head of the Counter Threat Unit (CTU) research team at Armor. Attackers know that academic institutions are more likely to be pressured into paying a ransom to regain access to their systems. IT staff at schools are likely going to be overloaded supporting distance-learning measures and are not monitoring their networks as closely as they might have otherwise.”]