IBM has announced that it will provide in-kind grants valued at $5 million to help address cybersecurity resiliency in public schools worldwide.

Ten grants—each valued at $500,000 in professional services and in-kind resources—will be made to six school districts in the United States and four schools in Brazil, Costa Rica, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates. The grants will help the schools build cybersecurity resiliency and develop incident response plans and ransomware playbooks. The program will focus on updating operating systems, providing cybersecurity training for staff, students, and parents, and developing a communications plan for use in the event of a cyber-attack.

In 2021, six school districts in the United States received similar in-kind grants from IBM: Brevard Public Schools in Viera, Florida; Denver Public Schools; KIPP Metro Atlanta Schools; Newhall School District in Valencia, California; Poughkeepsie City School District in Poughkeepsie, New York; and Sheldon Independent School District in Houston.

According to IBM, in 2021, more than 1,000 schools across in the United States suffered from cybersecurity incidents, a trend that is increasing worldwide. The percentage of ransomware attacks in the education sector globally more than doubled from 2020 to 2021.

“For schools, a large barrier to strengthening their cybersecurity posture often comes down to constrained budgets,” said Charles Henderson, head of IBM’s Security X-Force. “It's our duty to help our educational institutions strengthen their cyber preparedness.”

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