Cybersecurity in Education: Going Beyond Security Awareness

Cybersecurity is a growing concern for educational institutions across the board. While many people might think security threats are only a risk for online universities and institutions, the truth is, everyone is targeted. Whether it’s a local primary school, a state university, or an online learning portal, cyber threats can cause serious damage.

Cybersecurity has undergone a lot of advancements over the past decade. With more secure ways to store and share information, we’re heading in the right direction.

However, it’s not enough to simply educate teachers, students, and decision-makers on cybersecurity threats. There needs to be actionable processes and strategies in place for everyone to remain safe online.

We’ll dive deeper into how institutions should go beyond providing security awareness training to ensure organizational security. We’ll share actions to take and how to mitigate the most common cyber threats that educational institutions face.

What is Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is all about how to keep sensitive data safe in digital environments. Educational institutions will have many different areas that will need to ensure privacy and confidentiality when it comes to information like:

• Private contact information of students and educators
• Financial information and online accounts that may be used by the institution
• Internal operating data/processes that are strictly confidential and private to that institution
• Other data used for the management of educational materials (especially in terms of assignments, exams, and grading).

In addition to those more institution-specific areas, personal data can be at risk, too. If any personal accounts are used online by students/educators on institutional devices, they can also be taken advantage of by malicious intruders.

What is Cybersecurity Awareness?

Cybersecurity awareness is the amount to which potentially affected parties (students, staff, and decision-makers) understand the risks to their information and privacy. Education breeds awareness, so people need to know what the risks are and understand the type of attacks and breaches that can occur.

However, providing security awareness training once in a while is only the first step to promoting cybersecurity in education. For effective security, the institution should have incident plans in place and ensure each member of the organization takes cybersecurity seriously.

The key steps that can take security awareness to the next level:

• Assessing risks and communicating them to all parties
• Providing training to every person so they understand what their key role is in ensuring safety
• Getting necessary resources (and sharing resources) within institutions (anti-virus software, VPN access, etc.)
• Reviewing/updating security measures
• Creating incident response plans.

We’ll look at each one in more detail in this article.

Cybersecurity Threats In Education

The key threats to educational institution’s data security include:

Hacking: Unauthorized computer system/network access resulting in stealing sensitive information or harming the systems. E.g., Hackers could get into a university database and steal the staff’s personal information to then access their private financial accounts to steal funds.

Phishing: Attackers use email, fake websites, or even text to trick people into revealing sensitive information like passwords or credit card numbers. Fake payment links or invoices are one of the most common phishing attacks used on businesses and educational institutions.

Data Breaches: Stealing, using, or exposing sensitive information (like personal/financial data).

Malware: Malicious software that causes harm to an institution’s network or system. These include Trojans, viruses, and ransomware that damage devices, making them unusable.

MitM attacks: These are “man-in-the-middle” attacks, where communications are intercepted, and the information that is sent between two parties is modified by the attacker

Challenges of Cybersecurity in Educational Institutions

When institutions are aware of the potential challenges of implementing cybersecurity measures, they can plan more effectively how to get around these obstacles.

Funding Limitations: Not all institutions have access to the resources to be able to implement security tools. Limited budgets can result in less secure servers, portals, and devices. In this case, seeking outside funding could be an option that institutions should explore.

Technical Skills: There is a high level of expertise needed to ensure strong cybersecurity. On their own, some institutions will find it difficult to know exactly how to keep their systems secure, therefore hiring a specialist is the way to go.

Managing People: No one can be responsible for anyone else. Key decision-makers can manage user behavior (like creating rules for students to be unable to access social media on devices), but monitoring this behavior is challenging. People need to be encouraged to protect themselves and adhere to policies.

Cyberthreats: At the end of the day, threats become more frequent, and attackers become more intelligent. This is why staying aware of potential threats as the technological landscape changes are so important. Knowing what new threats are entering the online sphere will help decision-makers better prepare their environments and prevent any serious damage from happening.

How To Bring Cybersecurity Awareness Into Action

The following is a brief guide to help you ensure robust cybersecurity for your educational institution that goes beyond just providing cybersecurity awareness training.

Risk Assessment

There are many ways to conduct a risk assessment for cybersecurity. Bringing in a consultant who specializes in this field would be extremely valuable. For institutions that don’t have this budget, risk assessments should involve investigating all areas that might be vulnerable to exploitation.

List out the devices that are used within the institution, where people input passwords, what sensitive information is online and how it is stored, etc.