So why are education institutions such a popular target? A culture of information sharing, and openness to external collaboration, can invite risk and provide opportunities for threat actors to leverage. A culture of information sharing, and openness to external collaboration, can invite risk and provide opportunities for threat actors to leverage. It doesn’t help that many education institutions are running legacy software and hardware that may be unpatched and unsupported. It doesn’t help that many education institutions are running legacy software and hardware that may be unpatched and unsupported.