Cloud-based cybersecurity is critical to every organization, but for colleges and universities, the warning lights are all flashing red. A recent report ranked education last out of 17 major industries in its handling of data security, which is particularly troubling, since the personally identifiable information (PII) of students is at risk.
Schools routinely collect and store demographic, financial and health information along with grades. The open nature of most education networks is an essential part of the academic environment, allowing easy access for students, teachers and researchers. In higher education, security is often not a high enough priority.
Application vulnerabilities, slow or late patching, and overall network security protocols are being neglected, according to the SecurityScorecard analysis. The distributed nature of most campus networks adds another obstacle to security: tens of thousands of devices, many of them mobile, spread across a wide geographic area, all of them with easy access to common resources, such as the school’s Wi-Fi system — with inconsistent security protocols for all those desktops, laptops, tablets, phones and IoT devices.
While much of the concern stems from a lack of resources, ironically, education is a key factor, as well. Students, faculty and administrative staff are vulnerable to the same social engineering attacks (e.g., phishing scams) as in any other industry, but schools have not been proactive enough in raising awareness of this form of threat.
Webinar to Provide Unique Insights for End-to-end Security
While every environment presents some unique challenges, networked organizations have much in common when it comes to cybersecurity. Using large, private medical universities as a model, an upcoming webinar will take a deep dive into threat detection, mitigation and compliance strategies, with a focus on cloud-based tools that can enrich cybersecurity. The webinar, “Transforming Medical Universities with Cloud-Based Cybersecurity Tools,” will also examine how to align your security strategy with your key organizational objectives.
Security experts Brian Smith-Sweeney, the CISO for Columbia University Medical Center, and Cristian Rodriguez, Sales Engineering Manager, Public Sector at CrowdStrike, will highlight the spectrum of security issues impacting universities.
Smith-Sweeney will look at the ins-and outs of selecting next-gen endpoint security to help defend against evolving threats. According to the 2018 SANS Endpoint Security Survey, more than 80 percent of known breaches involve an endpoint. With the number of methods to access a network growing exponentially, effective endpoint protection is essential to any security strategy.
Ready to learn more? Register here.
