Higher education becoming an increasingly attractive target for cyber crimes
The education sector is increasingly becoming vulnerable to cyber threats, especially the higher education institutions. According to The Washington Post, some private universities fell prey to an extensive breach of student data, one of them posing a malicious threat that may have originated outside the USA.
Higher education also remains a target because of the immense amount of sensitive data arising from academic research tied to the government and the corporate world. Additionally, the widespread usage of smart devices with their not-so-secure network connections in the varsities make colleges the most vulnerable on the hit list.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that among all sectors that are most threatened by cybercrimes, the education sector is the least prepared to tackle them. Phishing attempts are nothing new, and yet Canada’s Grant MacEwan University incurred losses in millions due to one scam that induced them to change banking information.
This proves that there are internal risk factors as well, such as college admins failing to adhere to security policies or falling for phishing scams. This has to be curbed with awareness programmes and more training to IT personnel on AI and Cloud-based security systems to take on sophisticated cyber threats.
Article source:
https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2019/09/prepare-your-cybersecurity-refresher-new-staff-and-students
