Making up more than six per cent of the gross world product, the global education sector has been growing at a 4.5 per cent compound annual growth rate and is forecast to be worth $10 trillion by 2030. As the education sector continues to grow, so does the rate of digitisation in schools. More and more schools are implementing digital solutions to track student performance, schedule classes, monitor assignments, and perform other tasks.
As educational institutions worldwide continue to collect increasing amounts of student information, the responsibility to secure this data also exponentially increases. They carry a cyberattack risk, which in recent years seem to be more targeted against those in the higher education sector.
According to a BBC report, university research projects are major hacking targets, and universities in the United Kingdom were targeted with 1,000 cyberattacks in 2018. Elsewhere, there have been several data breaches reported in Australia, with at least 31 classified as malicious or criminal attacks between April 2018 and March 2019.
What kind of information is at risk?
Educational institutions store immense amounts of highly sensitive information, like contact information, academic records, Social Security numbers, financial information, and health records, which makes them lucrative targets for hackers. To top it all off, many universities conduct government-sponsored research, which may contain critical government information. Data assets like these fetch thousands of dollars on the dark web.
How do we combat the threats that the education sector faces?
As hackers continue to grow more skilled at stealing information, the education sector needs to step up its efforts to protect its highly sensitive systems and information. Setting up an information security program is key to overcoming these security challenges.
Educational institutions need to go through the following steps to implement a successful information security programme:
The challenges the education sector faces may seem overwhelming, but there are plenty of ways to effectively protect IT networks. A proactive approach ensures the safety of the immense amount of information that schools store. Strong access controls, authentication mechanisms, and constant monitoring of all databases that store information will help educational institutions achieve their cybersecurity goals.