The public sector is filled with cybersecurity challenges, but it is interesting how the needs change when you move from the federal government to state governments to education. The education sector sometimes gets overlooked because the information collected by schools is not imperative to national security like that in the federal government, but the security challenges are still incredibly important.
The education sector is third, just behind healthcare and retail, of the industries that face the largest number of cyberattacks. That makes sense. School systems hold a wealth of personally identifiable information (PII) of not only students, but teachers, administrators and other school staff. Hackers want this valuable information.
As the Trump administration sets its cybersecurity priorities for the upcoming four years many of the policies will focus on the federal government. Other parts of the public sector, though, will need help from the federal government, especially the education market.
Schools need a comprehensive approach to security. This security strategy needs to cover physical, virtual and cloud platforms, along with safely managing confidential data and other digital assets. Let’s look at some areas where education institutes need to look at going forward to improve cybersecurity.
Threat protection: Sophisticated cyber criminals constantly come up with new ways to attack. Thankfully, large cyber networks can help protect against these types of threats. The Symantec Global Intelligence Network monitors threat activity in more than 157 countries and records thousands of events per second. This information is used to inform future actions.
Information protection. Data is the most important part of any IT network. Schools need to be able to get deep visibility into how their users access data in order to properly control it. In today’s computing world, traditional on-premises boundaries are meaningless. Schools today need to be able to control data no matter where it is used or where it travels throughout its lifecycle.
Mobility. Education today is also not done in one place. Schools have embraced mobile technology, but those devices need protection at the endpoint, app and data layers. School systems need to look to edge app-wrapping technology that allows education apps to sit side-by-side with personal apps without intermingling. Doing that helps keep information on devices secure.
Schools face a delicate challenge. Their mission is not to protect data, but teach students. As technology plays a larger part in learning, data security grows in importance as well. The right solutions and right policies can help schools keep student data safe while utilizing the latest in learning technology. As the new administration grapples with its cybersecurity policies, a focus on securing PII in the education system should be a major consideration.
For additional information on how to protect PII in an education environment, read this data sheet.