US schools prepare for potential cyberthreat from Russia

US states are trying to beef up their cybersecurity as threats evolve during the pandemic. — Dreamstime/TNS

Alert to the heightened threat of Russian cyberattacks on US targets after the invasion of Ukraine, Seattle Public Schools in the past several weeks has blocked web traffic from Russia, upgraded safety firewall services and hired an additional antivirus company.

“The biggest problem is that schools are an easy target,” said April Mardock, the district’s cybersecurity manager. “Russia could release a whole bunch of attack bots, and they can do a good job of using them to go after lots of computers remotely.”