Page 3 - CT Innovation in Education, July 2021

Cybersecurity Response
How the pandemic has reshaped higher education institutions’ cybersecurity incident response
Campus Technology • PULSE SURVEY
5 top cybersecurity roadmap challenges
– lack of budget
– fear of phishing e-mails
– concerns about ransomware attacks – lack of cybersecurity training
– mobile device security
4 in10
IT professionals continue seeking solutions to boost student device protection
Colleges and universities are using these 3 top solutions to protect student devices
36% Identity management 30% Anti-virus
26% Anti-phishing/e-mail spoofing
39%
seeking opportunities to improve capabilities
24%
putting finishing touches on their strategy
27%
still adapting to the shift to virtual
11%
strategy unchanged
use of community insight, such as that provided by Internet2’s NET+ program, to make sure the school is choosing the
right security solutions for campus use and getting the best pricing for it. The other is making sure IT staff isn’t burdened with boring work. Employee turnover can slow cybersecurity momentum. By adopting tools meant to handle the mundane work, the more interesting jobs are left for staffers, increasing employee engagement and investment.
A Positive Outcome from the Pandemic
If the pandemic has posed innumerable security problems for schools, it has also uncovered one positive note: Numerous colleges and universities have used the time
to get their houses in order. A Campus Technology “pulse survey” among IT leaders and professionals found that two-thirds of institutions (63%) have reshaped their cybersecurity incident response, either putting the finishing touches on their strategies or improving their capabilities.
The biggest challenge they’ve faced would probably be of little surprise to anybody in the IT space: lack of budget, cited by 27% of respondents.
But that wasn’t the only hurdle mentioned:
ƒ 13% cited worries about keeping up with phishing e-mails;
ƒ 12% were concerned about ransomware attacks and lack of cybersecurity training; and
ƒ 10% mentioned mobile device security.
Other fears included a lack of qualified cybersecurity personnel, data breaches, password theft, identity management, theft of intellectual property, regulatory compliance and a denial-of-service attack hitting the website or network.
The protection of student devices was on the minds of most respondents. While four in 10 reported that they are continuing to seek solutions for boosting protection on student devices, the rest are using some combination of identity management (cited by 36%), anti-virus (30%) and anti-phishing software (26%).
Ultimately, the job of the cybersecurity professional in higher ed is to “plan for the worst day,” as one cybersecurity expert recently noted during a Campus Technology leadership summit. “If ransomware were to happen to you, what’s your plan? What will you do? Do you have security controls in place? Are you doing all you can to protect yourself? Where are your backups? Are they isolated so the bad guys can’t get at them? When you’re facing your worst day, making sure you’ve done all you can, knowing what to expect and how to respond, will be a huge benefit.”
Source: Campus Technology
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