Cybercrime in Higher Education – Hope For the Best?

April 30, 2019

Education Cybersecurity Weekly is a curated weekly news overview for those who are concerned about the Education industry and Education data breach. It provides brief summaries and links to articles and news across a spectrum of EdTech and cybercrime in Higher Education.

Hello, is it a cyber crime police station? Right, the situation in the education sector is still alarming. This time USB killers and ransomware have disturbed the peace. If the human immune system is a prototype for data protection system, the ERP systems can be compared with the brain of the whole educational organization, responsible for its data management.

Cybercrime clues in the education industry news

EdScoop on April 26, 2019

Hello, is it a cybercrime police station? Right, the situation in education sector is still alarming. This time USB killers and ransomware have disturbed the peace.

An incident happened at the College of St. Rose, a private college in Albany, New York. A former student of St. Rose, inserted a “USB Killer”, the device masked as a common USB thumb drive, that fried the hardware components of 66 computer, monitors, and computer-enhanced podiums. Although the malefactor’s motivation is unclear, he could serve up to 10 years in prison.

A school district in Madison County, Idaho, became another victim. The district computer systems were disabled by a ransomware attack when teachers and students were preparing for standardized state testing. While there is a range of proven young hackers’ methods to skip exam, this attempt was unsuccessful – administrators discovered the attack timely and shut down all servers and computers, so that no information was lost or compromised.

Nevertheless, cybercrime in Higher Education and K-12 sector is getting more sophisticated. Do you have an adequate response?

ERP industry development in Higher Ed – key trends

Campus Technology on April 25, 2019

If human immune system is a prototype for data protection system, the ERP systems can be compared with the brain of the whole educational organization, responsible for its data management. Like every system, the Higher Ed ERP industry constantly develops. Here are some aims that this development should gain:

  • Transparency – vendors should optimize their consumers’ support and maintenance licensing to be more consecutive across the institutions and avoid the inconsistent models of the past.
  • Reform an aged sale model to exclude the situations when colleges and universities do not understand the features of the company’s price policy.
  • Give clarity and direction to “cloud convergence” through explaining clients the difference between “cloud-enabled” and “cloud-native” systems.
  • Find sustainability amidst disruption. Working with educational organizations, where revenues are declining, vendors should carefully estimate their business strategy.
  • While PeopleSoft applications remain one of the popular solutions for educational organizations, PS security is a hot-button issue for university IT teams, particularly in terms of increasing cybercrime cases in Higher Education. Check out the PeopleSoft News Round-ups to get an insight into the latest PS news.

    Will ever cybercrime in Higher Education end?

    Campus Technology on April 25, 2019

    The question is rhetorical. The main reason why the education sector is a primary target for hackers is the huge amount of sensitive data from emerging research projects to personally identifiable information on students, faculty, and staff.

    This is not the only conclusion of the new report by IBM X-Force. According to it, the education sector takes ninth place among the most targeted industries. The study reveals various vulnerabilities, ranging from obtaining poor security protocols to dealing with a large network of users, who can result in potential cybersecurity damages. Moreover, financial cyber criminals, looking to take over bursary accounts and student IDs, deserve special attention.

    To mitigate cyber threats educational organizations should combine mutual penetration testing along with automated scanning. In addition, students and faculty should also be educated on phishing and malware efforts. Finally, it’s better for every IT team to have a cyber incident response plan and share the experience with other school, colleges, and universities. In that case, cybercrime in Higher Education wouldn’t have a chance.



    Bobby the Fish

    Fish morning, everyone.
    If I got the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, I would evict all cats from the planet. I’ve heard some man has destroyed a dozen of computers via a thumb drive! I cannot believe that a small piece of metal can cause so many problems. What if it is a cat’s secret weapon?

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