Do Canadian Schools Need Cyber Insurance

Do Canadian Schools Need Cyber Insurance?

Cyberattacks against Canadian schools, colleges, and universities are increasing and they're getting more sophisticated. Educational institutions can protect themselves against cyberattacks and data theft with cyber liability insurance.

Schools have a lot of data about their students, staff, and their educational institutions. Cyber insurance should be part of your school's cyber security plan and part of your school's risk management strategy.

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Why are schools targeted by cyber thieves?

Schools are vulnerable to cyberattacks because they have information such as:

• Student and staff addresses
• Personal information about students and staff
• Social insurance numbers
• Health information
• Academic records

This kind of personal information can be used for identity theft, sold on the dark web, or used for targeted cyberattacks at kindergarten to Grade 12 schools, colleges, and universities.

Schools may also have limited IT budgets and a lack of cyber education that may contribute to a cyberattack.

Did you know? More online learning, more devices connected to the Internet of things (IoT), and increased use of cloud platforms like servers and data networks create cyber vulnerabilities for educational institutions.

Should Canadian schools have cyber liability insurance? The answer is Yes!

Cyber liability insurance can protect your school financially if there's a cyberattack. It takes time and money to fix a breach, regain the data that was lost, and to advise all your students and staff whose information was stolen or compromised. A school could also get sued by the parties who've had their information stolen.

Here's how:

• Cyber liability insurance helps covers expenses related to data recovery, forensic investigations, and restoring compromised systems.
• It helps pay legal fees, regulatory fines, and penalties associated with breached privacy laws.
• Provides funds for notifying affected students, parents, and staff about a data breach, as required by law.
• Can help cover credit monitoring services for those impacted, reducing the risk of identity theft claims against the school
• Helps fund public relations and crisis communications to help restore trust with students, parents, and the community after a cyberattack
• Cyber insurance helps schools resume operations quickly and efficiently, reducing disruption that could negatively impact community confidence

In Canada, privacy breaches must be reported. Under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), organizations must report privacy breaches to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) and notify affected individuals if the breach poses a "real risk of significant harm," including physical harm, financial loss, identity theft, damage to reputation, or other serious impacts.

Other cyber liability coverages you can consider

Cyber extortion and ransomware: This coverage protects your business against losses caused by ransomware and other types of cyber extortion.

Network security: Provides third-party coverage from security failure, including theft of mobile equipment and system intrusions.

Digital asset loss: This coverage provides costs to restore or recollect digital assets.

Privacy breach liability: Coverage for breach of privacy law or the disclosure of protected and personal information.

Business interruption: Coverage of actual loss and extra expense if there's a network outage caused by hacking, a virus, or a breach.

Western Financial Group can help you with cyber liability insurance that fits the needs of your K-12 school, college, or university to protect against cyberattacks.

Have there been cyberattacks at Canadian schools?

Yes, Canadian schools have experienced cyberattacks in recent years. One of the most notable incidents involved a widespread ransomware attack targeting PowerSchool, a widely used student information system. This attack happened in late 2024 and early 2025 and affected at least 80 school boards across seven provinces and one territory.

It exposed sensitive student and staff data, including names, birthdates, health and social insurance numbers, and other personal information.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Northwest Territories reported PowerSchool breaches.

Other cyberattacks:

• In June 2024, the Toronto District School Board, Canada's largest, was targeted by the LockBit ransomware gang, which claimed responsibility for an attack that compromised student data from the 2023/2024 school year, including names, grades, and birth dates.
• University of Winnipeg suffered a tailored ransomware attack in March 2024, which encrypted critical records and resulted in the theft of two decades' worth of personal information.
• College of New Caledonia in Prince George, BC, reported a cyberattack in July 2025 that exposed students' names, emails, passwords, and phone numbers.

What kind of cyberattacks could happen to a school?

Phishing: Attackers send fraudulent communications, usually emails, impersonating trusted people or organizations to lure victims into performing harmful actions. These actions include clicking on malicious links that lead to fake websites designed to steal login credentials or personal data or opening infected attachments that deploy malware. The attacker exploits trust and urgency to steal sensitive data such as financial information, passwords, or to gain access to accounts.

Malware: Malware is malicious software intended to damage, disrupt, or gain unauthorized access to computer systems or networks. It can monitor user activity and capture sensitive data like passwords or credit card numbers, then transmit that data to attackers. Malware types include spyware (which secretly spies on users), keyloggers (which record keystrokes), ransomware (which locks or encrypts files), and Trojans (which disguise themselves as legitimate programs to infiltrate systems).

Ransomware: Ransomware is a type of malicious software (malware) that restricts access to a computer system or data, usually by encrypting files, until a ransom is paid to the attacker. This ransom can be demanded in cryptocurrency to maintain the attacker's anonymity.

Ransomware can be spread through phishing emails containing malicious attachments or links. It can also be distributed via drive-by downloads, where a user unknowingly visits an infected website that silently installs the malware on their device without their knowledge.

Denial of service attack: A hacker floods a website with more traffic than it can handle, making it impossible for legitimate visitors to access the site.

Spoofing: A hacker imitates people or companies and even computers with the intent to trick people into giving up personal information to steal information, spread malware, attack a computer system, or bypass access controls.

Brute force: A brute force attacks aim to decode encrypted data or crack passwords by repeatedly trying possible combinations until access is gained.

At Western Financial Group, we help you understand what your insurance covers and offer expert advice to make sure you're protected for unexpected events.

How to lower the risk of a cyberattack at your educational institution

Your K-12 school, college, or university needs a strategy and ongoing training to prevent cyberattacks.

Top ways to reduce cyberattacks:

• Limit access privileges: Users should only be given access to information necessary for their roles. For example, administration staff should not have the same access as IT employees. This helps prevent potential damage if credentials are compromised.
• Use multifactor authentication (MFA): This adds an extra layer of security by requiring additional verification (such as a code sent to a phone) beyond just a password, helping prevent unauthorized access to information.
• Education: Make it a priority to hold regular workshops on cyber education and awareness to help prevent cyberattacks.
• Strong data backup and recovery: Maintain frequent automated backups of critical data and ensure data recovery plans are in place to restore operations quickly if a cyber incident occurs.
• Limit unapproved device usage: Control devices connecting to the network, remove administrative rights on student devices, and install antivirus/anti-malware software. Use web content filtering to protect users from malicious sites, even when devices are remote.
• Develop an incident response plan: Prepare a clear, practiced plan for responding to cyber incidents. This includes processes for containment, eradication, recovery, and communication to reduce impact and downtime

To sum it all up

Cyber liability insurance protects your school financially from cyberattacks and it protects your educational institution reputationally.

5 FAQs

Should a school pay ransom after a cyberattack to get its data back?

Paying a ransom can be discouraged by authorities because there is no guarantee that encrypted data or systems will actually be restored after payment. Paying ransom could encourage future attacks. Some school districts do choose to pay ransoms to quickly restore critical systems or to prevent sensitive student and staff data from being publicly leaked. Schools are encouraged to have cybersecurity practices, backups, and incident response plans to reduce the need to consider ransom payments.

How much does cyber insurance for a school cost?

The cost of cyber insurance for schools can vary widely depending on factors such as the size of the school, the amount and sensitivity of data stored, coverage limits, and risk profile. Schools should budget for a range between $1,000 to $7,000 annually for cyber insurance. The actual cost will depend on their cyber risk management strategy, size, and information they store.

What does cyber insurance cover?

Cyber insurance typically helps cover costs related to data breaches, ransomware payments, legal fees, notification of affected parties, forensic investigations, business interruption losses, and sometimes reputational management.

Is cyber insurance mandatory for schools?

It is not legally required, but cyber insurance is strongly recommended due to the sensitive nature of the data that schools keep and the increase in cyberattacks on educational institutions.

How does cyber insurance protect a school's reputation?

Cyber insurance can cover crisis communication and public relations efforts to help restore parent, student, and community trust after a cyberattack.