With a growing number of universities across Canada and around the world being targeted by cyber-attacks, information technology professionals at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton are making sure they’re not a part of that list.

To do so, David Shipley is keeping tabs on hackers from around the world, looking for any vulnerabilities within the university’s network.

“You can almost track the rise and set of the sun by the volume of attacks coming from any particular part of the world against us,” said Shipley.

Shipley, the director of Strategic Initiatives for Information Technology at UNB, says last year there were between 50 million and 85 million hacker scans on the network every week.

“Now this year were seeing 500 million scans a week,” he said.

Universities in particular are more and more becoming a prime target. Carleton University in Ottawa is the latest school cleaning up a cyber attack on their network. Messages began popping up on Carleton computer screens earlier in the week demanding payment in bit coins in order for the user to regain control.

Shipley says hackers are targeting universities in large part because those networks hold a large amount of personal information.

“So this has a currency. It sells for a lot on the black market, if you will. So we're the digital bank, and a lot of universities are being hit to steal this information.”

The University of New Brunswick has not yet had to deal with a large-scale hack.

“The problem is the threat environment is changing every day,” said Shipley.

Andrea Meade, the co-owner of a computer repair shop in Fredericton, says there's a real misconception that home or small business network aren't as vulnerable to these kind of threats.

She says the shop gets calls proving the opposite every day.

“They’re actually calling it a cold war right now,” Meade said. “We've unfortunately actually had to pay a ransom on behalf of a business client. Their works stations and server got encrypted, they had to have their data back so they fell prey.”

Shipley says at this point, it’s up to users to be constantly checking their security and backup systems.

“Unlike things like police or national defence, right now we are truly on our own,” he said.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Nick Moore.