Accelerated digitalization due to the pandemic and the need to adapt quickly to distance learning made schools the perfect target for cybercriminals. Moreover, compared to universities and based on disadvantages in terms of available technology and skills, primary and secondary education was even less prepared to meet the new security challenges posed by increased exposure and heightened risks.
Higher education institutions have long been subjected to ransomware and other cyber attacks, which has had a huge impact on their operations. In 2020 alone, ransomware attacks affected nearly 1,700 U.S. schools, colleges and universities – which is an increase of 100% over the previous year. The average cost of these attacks were $2.73 million in downtime, repairs and lost opportunities.
Have you ever looked at the curriculum offered in a Computer Science program? Across many different universities, there are some commonalities among the courses students take. Generally, there’s an introductory course in the first semester that introduces students to the world of computer science. Then over the course of subsequent semesters, students take courses about programming (including an introduction to OOP), databases, data structures, etc.
A few weeks ago, we reported how the new wave of phishing that uses new variants of COVID-19 as bait had hit the education sector hard. Many students at universities and colleges across the United States were victims of phishing attacks via emails pretending to be from administrators at their institutions.
A recently published report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has warned that official security guidance from the Department of Education is out-of-date, and needs to be refreshed to address the increasing reports of ransomware and other cyber threats.
While there’s no real way to prevent them all, understanding vulnerabilities, common types of cyberattacks and how to prevent them can help college and university leaders prioritize their security strategies to help keep institutional data and students safe.
Edtech is helping to provide children and adults all over the world with new and updated skills and knowledge. One important area it’s helping with is cybersecurity. A recent report by Forbes gave the opinion that edtech would provide the perfect backdrop for cybersecurity learning, and it's easy to see why.
Higher education has increasingly been attracting the attention of cybercriminals. In March, the FBI released an advisory in response to a barrage of ransomware attacks on schools, and Inside Higher Education recently reported that colleges and universities are becoming favorite victims of bad actors. It's not just colleges themselves that are being targeted; their vendors and third parties are being attacked in the hopes of compromising an institution’s data.
Educational institutions are reaping the many benefits and new possibilities offered by online learning, but these new methods of educational instruction come with serious cyber security concerns. These institutions are also a prime focus for hackers because they often host a lot of sensitive data about teachers and students. Furthermore, schools and universities are an easy target because not every teacher or professor is technologically savvy.
