In 2016, security scanning and ratings firm Bitsight found that 13% of the higher-education sector had been infected with ransomware, the highest rate across all industries. Bitsight warned that the sharing mindset at schools and universities lead to more cybersecurity risk.
"Those in the education field naturally have an 'information-sharing' mentality, which lends to a high rate of peer-to-peer file sharing," the company stated in a blog post. "Universities and higher ed institutions encourage collaboration — but as a result, you often see students and faculty engaging in file-sharing activity on the school’s primary network."