Taking a look at Cybersecurity at Institutions of Higher Learning.

Though threats are constantly evolving, learning institutions must continue to invest in both the talent and infrastructure needed to meet cybersecurity challenges going forward. This illuminates the importance of developing cybersecurity expertise for institutions of higher learning and offer strategies for addressing these challenges.

As we examine why universities are uniquely vulnerable to cyberattacks, we will investigate the strategies attackers use to exploit these vulnerabilities and propose a set of recommendations designed to better equip universities to address cyber threats in the future.

Education providers are especially vulnerable because of the number and diversity of individuals accessing their systems. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, staff and students have needed to access university resources online from their homes and other locations, which may be less secure than a university-managed network, increasing the already heightened risk. What was once a closed, sealed system, now has multiple entry points, with multiple applications and collaboration platforms interconnected, and all powered by the internet and cloud.

In light of the pandemic, social engineering and phishing have become the preferred cyberattack methods. A scammer will attempt to gain access to your personal information by pretending to be a trusted source. The bait often comes in the form of phishing emails, where a clever hacker sends you a message that looks like it's from someone you know, asking you to send them money or click/download an infected attachment to find out more.

In addition, hackers can obtain your credentials through a practice called keylogging, which involves a downloadable program that records your keystrokes and saves your usernames and passwords as they are entered. This and other forms of “spyware” are malware that tracks your activity until a hacker has what they need to strike. Note, it is not just downloading you have to worry about, attackers can deploy malware on the user’s machine if they are in your environment and capture your credentials via keylogging too.

In the unlikely event that security tools become outdated as the hacking landscape advances, business systems would suffer. Oftentimes, users ignore update notifications or security patches, making them vulnerable to hacking.

You are the first line of defence. How secure or vulnerable you are to a cyberattack depends on the security measures you take. For instance, to ward off password cracking, ensure to choose a strong password that contains a combination of numbers, special characters, upper and lowercase characters, and phrases, such as MyDog8MyHomework! or leverage password management tools. Two, avoid sharing any personal or financial information on unsecured websites and only connect to protected trusted Wi-Fi networks e.g., work or home networks. Thirdly, do not click on pop-ups that appear on the web page and update your operating systems and antivirus regularly or whenever prompted. Last but not least, if you notice anything suspicious, make sure to contact the system administrator or ICT staff and double-check an email before opening it.