New Delhi (TIP): The education sector in India was attacked significantly more compared to other industries in the month of July globally, experiencing 5,196 attacks per week on average, a new report has showed.

By region, organisations in the education sector in South Asia experienced the highest volume of attacks. The most targeted countries were India, Italy, Israel, Australia and Turkey, according to Check Point Research (CPR).

In India, schools, universities and research centres make for attractive targets to cyber criminals because they are often under resourced from a security perspective. The short-notice, on-and-off shift to remote learning exacerbates the security risk,” said Sundar Balasubramanian, Managing Director, Check Point, India and SAARC.

The UK region experienced a 142 per cent increase in weekly cyberattacks on its education sector, while the East Asia region marked a 79 per cent increase.

“With so many students logging on from their home networks using their personal devices, the current school season presents a range of new security threats that many aren’t prepared to address,” he added.

In more than half of the countries studied by CPR, the education sector is the most attacked sector, and in 94 per cent of them, the education sector is in the top three most attacked sectors.