How to stay a step ahead of cybersecurity threats in higher education

Higher education faces some of the greatest cybersecurity challenges of any sector. Colleges and universities manage a vast array of digital assets — reports, photos, videos, recordings, curriculum, brochures, research data and methodologies and other material — and a huge amount of highly valuable personal data. Access to relevant information must be easy for students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and the broader community, while ensuring only authorized access to sensitive data.

Although higher education IT leaders rank cybersecurity as their top priority, 30 percent of colleges and universities say their cybersecurity team is not well equipped for protecting an evolving security perimeter. Keeping up with threats and attacks is challenging due to competition for cybersecurity staff and tight budgets.

Attackers are drawn to the higher education sector because of the huge amount of personally identifiable information (PII) available on students, faculty and others. Although the profile of threats is concerning, you can protect your institution from attacks that come from a wide range of attack vectors. Understanding current and emerging types of threats can help you put the right protection in place.