Back-to-school season brings more than new schedules, new environments, school supplies and packed calendars. It also creates a surge in digital activity that cybercriminals are ready to exploit.
Students are logging into school platforms, parents are receiving emails about registrations and payments and employees are juggling work alongside changing family routines. More laptops, tablets, smartphones, devices and online accounts are being used every day. This increased activity creates a larger attack surface for both families and businesses.
Phishing Attacks Become More Convincing
Cybercriminals often take advantage of seasonal events to make phishing emails and text messages appear legitimate. During back-to-school season, fraudulent messages may impersonate schools, teachers, deliveries, retailers, financial institutions or technology providers. These messages may contain malicious links designed to steal usernames and passwords or attachments that install malware.
Businesses face similar threats. Employees distracted by busy schedules may be more likely to click a convincing Microsoft 365 password reset, fake invoice, shipping notification or urgent request from someone pretending to be a company executive.
Security awareness and verification are critical. When in doubt, avoid clicking the link and contact the organization through a trusted source.
Credential Theft Remains a Major Risk
Reused or weak passwords can turn one compromised account into a much larger security incident. If the same password is used for a school portal, personal email account and workplace application, a single stolen credential could give an attacker access to multiple systems.
Use unique passwords for every account, store them in a reputable password manager, and enable multi-factor authentication wherever possible.
For businesses, MFA should be a standard security control for email, cloud applications, remote access and other sensitive systems.
Patch Devices Before They Become Targets
Devices that sat unused during the summer may be missing important operating system, browser, application, or firmware updates. Unpatched vulnerabilities can provide attackers with an easy way into a device or network.
Businesses should use centralized patch management and vulnerability monitoring to identify and address security gaps before they are exploited.
Keep Business Devices Protected
Company devices should never become family computers. Allowing children or other family members to use a business laptop can expose the organization to malicious downloads, unsafe websites, unauthorized software or compromised accounts.
Organizations should do the following to reduce these risks:
- Utilize endpoint protection
- Have proper device management
- Use web filtering
- Do security monitoring frequently
- Have clearly defined acceptable-use policies in place
Make Cybersecurity a Year-Round Priority
Back-to-school season is a good reminder that cybersecurity threats do not stay at the office — or at home. Personal and professional technology are increasingly connected, which means good security habits matter everywhere.
A Managed Security Services Provider such as Fortifi Cyber Security can help businesses strengthen their defenses through 24/7 security monitoring, endpoint protection, vulnerability management, email security, employee awareness training and incident response planning. Schedule a free consultation with us to ensure your business, its technology, its employees and its data stay safe and secure this back to school season.
As everyone settles into a new school-year routine, make cybersecurity part of the checklist.
