How To Tackle Cyber Attacks In Education Sector?

Hackers are attempting new methods to attack the higher education industry because institutional data pays off.

Education Technology Insights | Wednesday, November 06, 2019

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Hackers are attempting new methods to attack the higher education industry because institutional data pays off.

FREMONT, CA: The education sector is facing several challenges, including lack of staffing and less funding and resources, and many others. Among them, cyber attacks are one of the biggest threats that schools and colleges face presently. Many education organizations have fallen victim to attacks in recent years. The hackers target institutional data held by schools - such as children’s records because it pays off.

No organizations are immune from cyber attacks, even retailers; financial institutions, healthcare, and other sectors also suffer breaches. In the education sector, teachers and parents are considered as prime and ‘soft target’ by the hackers as they are often unprepared to deal with cyber attacks. The most popular types of attacks are malware and phishing.

Education institutions should analyze current breach patterns and develop cybersecurity practices to save their institutionrom cyber attacks.

Cyber attacks damage the universities and colleges for the long term. The students, staff, and IT infrastructure get affected by data breaches for the long-term. After a successful attack, the risk perception of students increases temporarily. Here are some ways to strengthen cybersecurity for higher Ed users:

1. Discover the source of an attack

To take an effective step in cybersecurity, all the educational institutions should first do an assessment. They can discover specific vulnerabilities and can

develop incident responses and backup policies to lessen the risk. It will safeguard the institutions from random cyber attacks.

2. Evaluate user readiness

Often users have less potential to face the risk of sudden cyber attacks. By employing regular phishing tests on staff and students will improve their readiness to

encounter these sudden attacks.

3. Verify the vendors

Universities and schools are relying on cloud storage, but cloud services are also under the same attacks. To get rid of this situation, institutions can use several tools like Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT.) It will help IT leaders to evaluate potential cloud providers and ensure agreements meet security expectations.

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