IBM offers $3M in grants to school districts fighting cyberattacks

IBM announced it will provide $3 million in grants to six school districts to help in their fight against cyberattacks.

The Armonk-headquartered company cited FBI data from December noting that a nearly 60% increase in ransomware incidents between August and September involving K-12 schools.

The six grants will be divided into allocations of $500,000 each, and school districts can apply for the grant via the IBM.org website through March 1. Volunteers from the IBM Service Corps will assist the school districts in strengthening their cybersecurity systems.

“Ransomware attacks on schools have become the new snow day for students,” said Christopher Scott, director of security innovation in IBM”™s Office of the CISO.

“Stay-at-home orders and the switch to remote learning have changed the focus for cybercriminals looking for easy targets as everyone from kindergartners to college professors have adopted remote technologies. And with budgets focused on new ways of learning, many schools are in need of additional resources and technology to change the dynamic and lower the financial ROI for the bad guys targeting them.”