There is the very real possibility that hackers are waiting in the wings as schools and universities restart classes this autumn. Higher education remains vulnerable given the on-going issues relating to the coronavirus pandemic.
Furthermore, given trends across the past couple of years one specific form of cybersecurity threat stands as the most concerning. From analysis, it is apparent that ransomware attacks represent the number one cybersecurity threat for universities.
In 2020, for the U.S., attacks against higher education were up 100 percent compared to 2019 with the average ransom demand being $447,000, according to an assessment undertaken by ZDNet.
A new study indicates that most of the attacks occurred in the most populous states of the U.S., including Texas, New York, California and Louisiana and that more than 1,740 schools and colleges were impacted by a ransomware attack in 2020.
Based on these troubling trends, what can schools do to protect themselves as they begin to welcome students back or continue to navigate a hybrid environment?
One response is for the education sector to be strategic and proactive in their cybersecurity approach and identify vulnerabilities in their systems before they get exploited.
For example, the company Open Systems recently worked with The College of Southern Nevada (CSN) during the height of COVID-19. As this case study reveals, the activity was undertaken in order to ensure the security of over 37,000 students and some 2,500 faculty and staff who often remotely log into their systems.
This was accomplished by integrating Secure SD-WAN and MDR that worked seamlessly with CSN’s Microsoft Azure Sentinel SIEM. This process allowed for the development of a 24×7 security operations center (SOC) together with direct 24×7 detection, investigation, and remediation of threats.
Furthermore, the activity enable the IT department to focus on student, faculty, and staff technology experience instead of having to engage in the circular activity of firefighting as a means to repel attacks.
