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.
Strategy & Training
Institutions need to outline the security plan based on the potential risks that were uncovered in the assessment. For those who have the budget to bring in a cybersecurity consultant to create a strategy, that would be ideal. If a third party conducted the risk assessment, they might also create a plan for the institution as well. For those that don’t have access to consultants, the strategy would outline:
- Roles and responsibilities for key decision-makers
- Responsibilities for the greater community (students and staff)
- How each phase of the plan will be carried out, when, and by who
- Contact details of each key member of the team
- Resources that will be used (tools mentioned below).
You can also browse the web for some free templates of cybersecurity plans and strategies to get a better idea of how to create one.
The training aspect is essentially about the information and resources each member needs to have access to for the plan to be carried out. Who will train staff, and how do they need to be trained? What about the students? What do they need to be educated in? Online tutorials, in-person classes, and full-institution meetings and seminars are training options.
Provide Resources
Decision-makers should refer to their risk assessment and strategy to choose which resources should be used and shared. Some resources and tools would only require a one-time download and payment, while others might be subscription based, and some could be free.
You should also take into account the fact that staff usually needs different security tools from what the students might use. This should all be detailed in the plan.
Here are just a few of the security measures that any educational institution should invest in if they haven’t already:
- Antivirus software
- Password managers and encryption tools
- Authenticators for log-in
- VPN for the organization’s devices, including a VPN for mobile phones
For younger students who want to learn more about cybersecurity and even demonstrate an interest in growing this skill in the future, Cyber Quests is an interactive online app geared towards cybersecurity education.
Update Your Security Plans
Finally, the security strategy always needs to be adapted to current threats and any innovations in cybersecurity. If new technology can replace others, update your measures and re-educate the people who need to be using this technology. The plan should never be stagnant and should be re-evaluated and adjusted regularly. After all, when it comes to the cyber world, things change fast.
Part of creating and updating your cybersecurity strategy is having a quality incident response plan in place – a detailed procedure for when attacks happen. This should state who should be contacted, how, and what measures would be needed to be taken for the data to be secured and the threat cleared.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: What is cybersecurity in education?
Cybersecurity in education means the protection of data, networks, and other cyber threats of educational institutes.
Q: Why is cybersecurity important in education?
Cybersecurity is important in education as educational institutes have a lot of sensitive contents such as student data, which is an attraction for cyber criminals.
Q: What is security awareness in education?
Security awareness in education means to create awareness of cyber crimes by educating students, staff, and other faculty members. Cyber security in education means teaching them about cyber threats and how to prevent them.
Q: Why is security awareness not enough to protect educational institutions from cyber threats?
Security awareness among educational institutes is not enough to protect it from cyber crimes, because cyber criminals are becoming incredibly sophisticated and can use advanced reactions to break all the security measures.
Q: What are some best practices for cybersecurity in education?
Some of the best practices for cyber security in education includes:
- implementing strong passwords
- Regularly updating software and security systems
- Promoting security awareness trainings
- Limiting access
Q: How can educational institutions prepare for a cyber attack?
- Here are some ways on how educational institutes can prepare for a cyber attack
- creating incident response plan
- Backing up data on a regular basis
- Conducting regular security awareness programs
- Investing in cybersecurity insurance
Q: What is the role of technology in cybersecurity in education?
Technology plays an important role in cybersecurity in education as it provides tools for monitoring networks and systems, responding to threats, data security through encryption and other security measures.
The Bottom Line: Cybersecurity Matters
Educational institutions are not immune to cyber threats. There is a need to know not only what the dangers are but how to mitigate them and manage them when they happen. Awareness only gets you so far – then comes action.
Investing in technology tools, resources, training, strategy, and, ultimately, working together as a team can make institutions impenetrable and more confident that their sensitive information is secure.
