What is swatting? 6 ways schools can strengthen prevention

What is swatting?

Swatting involves making prank calls to emergency services, where a false report of a serious crime is made. The goal is to trick first responders into deploying a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team to the supposed incident location.

How does a school swatting prank work?

Swatting in schools typically begins with the attacker gathering information and then making a believable false report, which may include the following steps:

1. The attacker chooses a school to target.
2. They collect information such as addresses and staff contact information.
3. The attacker calls 911 to report a serious crime, such as an active shooter situation, at the target school. The call can be made with the help of caller ID spoofing to hide the attacker’s location.
4. A SWAT team may be dispatched to the school to handle the situation, potentially putting students, staff and visitors at risk.

Key indicators of a swatting call hoax

There are several indicators of a swatting prank call that schools must be aware of. These can be categorized into three categories: behavioral, detail and technical.

Why do people commit swatting incidents?

There are many reasons why people commit swatting threats and attacks against schools. For school security teams and administrators, understanding the motivational factors is crucial for creating and implementing prevention strategies for educational institutions. 

These are the key reasons why individuals carry out a swatting prank:

• Harassment: Individuals may want to harass and intimidate school administrators, staff and students, making them feel unsafe.
• Revenge: Some individuals may feel they’re a victim of injustice and seek to use a swatting attack against a school as a form of revenge.
• Seek attention: Swatters seek attention from the incident, hoping to see the news spread across the media.
• Delay/​cancel school exams: Students may perform a swatting hoax to delay and cancel an upcoming school exam.
• Financial gain: While rare, some swatters may be paid by a third party to commit a swatting hoax on a school.
• Race or politics: Individuals may commit a swatting attack against a school if they have biased racial or political views.

Recently, college campuses have seen a spate of swatting incidents, with the false report of an active shooter being the most frequent violent incident type in the 2022 – 2023 academic year. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have experienced a disproportionately high number of these incidents. Such false threats can lead to significant disruption and costs.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, a swatting incident is estimated to cost communities $10,000. This doesn’t include expenditures on investigations, repairs and counseling.

How do swatters target schools?

Victims of swatting in schools are typically chosen based on the perpetrator’s motivation. Once a school has been selected, the attacker will gain access to the organization’s private information, including the names of administrators and management, their contact numbers and email addresses.

This key information is often obtained through one of the following methods:

Online doxing

Doxing is a practice where cybercriminals share individuals’ personal information online. This typically involves collecting data through hacking personal accounts and accessing public databases and social media platforms.

Online information

Individuals who overshare personal information on websites or social media platforms risk putting their private information into the hands of a swatting perpetrator, for example, a teacher’s social post about their school could expose where they work.

Social engineering

Some swatters will utilize social engineering techniques to trick victims into sharing personal details via emails, text messages and phone calls.

IP address tracking

Swatting prank perpetrators can obtain a school’s IP address and utilize geolocation platforms to figure out its location.

Location services

Swatters can obtain a user’s location by hacking into location-sharing services and apps on computers, mobile devices and websites.

The impact of swatting hoaxes in schools

From disrupted teaching and learning to long-term emotional trauma, swatting in schools can have devastating and widespread effects across students, staff, first responders and local communities.

Impact on schools

For schools, swatting incidents can cause extreme safety concerns for administrators and leadership. The sudden presence of law enforcement and SWAT teams in school can cause panic, concern and confusion, sometimes leading to innocent parties being injured in the ensuing chaos.

Furthermore, a school’s reputation can be affected by news of a swatting hoax targeting it. This can have short and long-term implications, ranging from intense media presence to parents and students choosing another school. 

If a school falls victim to multiple swatting pranks, it could lead to a lax emergency response in the future. First responders may believe that a genuine threat is another swatting prank that could be ignored, putting the safety of staff, students and visitors at risk.

Impact on staff and students

For staff and students, swatting not only disrupts teaching and learning, but it can also cause emotional harm. The chaos, confusion and fear that occur during swatting incidents in schools can affect their well-being and cause long-term trauma, including anxiety, depression and PTSD.

Impact on first responders

First responders, including SWAT teams, also face numerous effects of swatting. The false reports lead to wasted resources and taxpayer money, slowing response times to genuine emergencies that coincide.

Once a swatting incident is over and threats have been dismissed, first responders still need to carry out follow-up work, including investigations, potential repairs to buildings and counselling for those affected.

How to prevent swatting threats

Once schools understand what swatting attacks are, how they work and why they happen, they can implement measures to avoid becoming a potential target. 

Below are key strategies for schools to implement.

1. Raise awareness of swatting

To combat the dangers of swatting, schools must prioritize educating students and communities about the issue. This education should focus on increasing awareness of the crime, detailing the severe legal consequences for those who perpetrate it and providing guidance on safeguarding private information. This includes informing people of best practices to follow, such as avoiding over-sharing personal data online.

Raising awareness can deter potential hoax perpetrators and better equip students, staff and parents. This improved preparedness will enable them to recognize suspicious online behavior that could signal a threat and prevent their data from being compromised.

2. Install AI-powered physical security solutions

Physical security systems, such as Avigilon’s AI-powered solutions, can help prevent swatting by providing the situational awareness and video coverage needed to verify if there is a genuine emergency.

Avigilon’s school safety technology can help prevent, expose and mitigate the dangers of swatting by providing immediate, verifiable situational awareness and rapid response capabilities. 

Additionally, its AI video analytics software can accurately detect threats, such as an active shooter, and alert security officers to the event. The absence of these alerts during reported incidents could indicate the emergency call is likely a hoax.

3. Establish communication protocols and reporting

Effective communication can make the difference in helping prevent swatting incidents in schools. By quickly identifying, verifying and communicating suspicious activity using AI-powered school security systems, staff can report swatting threats to local law enforcement faster. 

To support this and enable non-staff to report potential threats without fear of retaliation, educational institutions should create an anonymous reporting system. By implementing such a process, schools can help create a stronger safety culture, one that promotes vigilance and responsibility.

4. Implement robust privacy settings

To prevent a swatting incident from occurring at a school, it is crucial to help protect staff and student data, as this information can be exploited. Schools should actively support and encourage staff and students to implement strong privacy settings on their social media, email and devices, following best practices for good cyber hygiene.

5. Enforce password policy and two-factor authentication

Alongside strict privacy settings, schools must enforce a password policy. The policy should instruct authorized users to utilize strong passwords that are changed regularly to help protect school accounts from being hacked and data from being lost.

A strong password policy should be combined with two-factor authentication for an extra layer of account security. This requires users to verify their login activity by inputting a unique security code sent to their mobile device or from an authenticator app.

6. Build close relationships with law enforcement

Law enforcement has developed effective procedures and policies to handle swatting incidents in schools, with officers trained to recognize and respond to swatting calls. 

By developing stronger working relationships with local law enforcement, school resource officers and administrators can coordinate with police departments to share valuable information on the latest threats and key signs of swatting to look out for. This can include sharing access to the school’s security cameras or other systems to enable law enforcement to verify emergency incident calls before dispatching a response.

By recognizing the signs of a swatting prank, schools and local law enforcement can prevent the event from escalating by not initiating a SWAT team response and putting resources into identifying and apprehending the perpetrators.

Conclusion

Swatting poses a growing threat to schools and communities, causing widespread disruption and long-term impacts on students and staff. Understanding the meaning of swatting, the motivations behind these hoaxes and the methods perpetrators use to target victims is crucial for effective prevention. 

By implementing preventative measures, schools can better protect their students, staff and resources from these malicious attacks.