Despite surging cyberattacks on universities, they’re struggling to defend themselves. Cybersecurity awareness training is critical for the higher education sector because it’s the only fully distributed form of protection, as every member of the university community can be empowered to identify and thwart a broad range of cyberattacks.
Over the past several years, cyber threats to the higher education sector have become increasingly severe. Institutions are struggling to protect their vast networks from rapidly evolving tactics, which puts students, professors, researchers, administrators, and all other university community members at risk. As cyberattacks on institutions surge, it has never been more important to make cybersecurity integral to every aspect of university operations – from record keeping to digital learning.Â
Universities have large populations of students and staff, which require dedicated services such as health clinics and police forces. Higher education institutions are like small cities that need to be governed and protected just like any other community – a fact that applies to small schools, too. The digital safety of university communities has never been more vital as core university functions continue to migrate online, which creates a target-rich environment for cybercriminals who want to steal data or disrupt operations in search of ransom.Â
Cybersecurity awareness training (CSAT) is critical for every layer of a university’s digital defenses. The size of university communities is a significant liability, as any individual member of those communities could put the wider network at risk. But effective CSAT can offer the distributed protection institutions need, and the process of training students and staff is perfectly consistent with a university’s educational mission.Â
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Universities Face Evolving Cyber Threats
Consider the amount of sensitive information higher education institutions are charged with guarding: private student records, research data, health and insurance records, and more. These are a few of the reasons cybercriminals have compelling incentives to infiltrate university networks, impede their operations, and hold their data hostage.Â
According to a 2022 Sophos studyOpens a new window , almost two-thirds of higher education institutions suffered ransomware attacks in the previous year. Ninety-seven percent of respondents say these attacks affected their operations (the highest proportion across all sectors), and even when institutions paid the ransom, just 2 percent were able to retrieve all the stolen or encrypted data. Universities are especially vulnerable to any attack which relies on tricking people to gain access or steal data, as their large student bodies, faculties, and workforces provide many opportunities for social engineering.Â
IBM reportsOpens a new window that the average cost of a data breach in the education sector reached $3.86 million in 2022, and the spike in ransomware attacks on universities demonstrates that cybercriminals regard these institutions as high-value targets. Like city officials facing an imminent disaster in their community, university leaders have to take action now. This means ensuring that all stakeholders are invested in cybersecurity awareness and capable of protecting the institution.Â
Instilling the Value of Digital Citizenship
One major advantage of deploying CSAT in higher education is the fact that cybersecurity awareness is among the most important skills students can cultivate. The 2022 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report notes that 82 percentOpens a new window of all breaches involve the human element – a reminder that identifying and preventing cyberattacks is quickly becoming a prerequisite for the next generation of workers.
Universities shouldn’t just present CSAT as a way to keep the institution safe, or even as an attractive line on students’ resumes. It’s quickly becoming the central pillar of responsible digital citizenship more broadly. Digital citizenship is a concept universities should embrace and emphasize – as our lives continue to migrate online, careful data management, real-world knowledge of cyber threats and how to mitigate them, and other digital security elements are relevant to more areas of our lives. With state-sponsored cyberattacks on the rise and many companies on the front lines, digital citizenship even overlaps with national citizenship.
CSAT isn’t just about learning how to spot phishing emails, report suspicious activity, or use tools such as password managers and multi-factor authentication. It requires the recognition that cybersecurity awareness is a fundamental responsibility for everyone – just as the purpose of a university is to produce competent and informed citizens, graduates must understand that this principle applies to their digital citizenship as well.Â
How CSAT Coincides With the University’s Mission
It’s fitting that the most effective cybersecurity resource universities have is education. One of the biggest cybersecurity challenges in higher education is the size, openness, and decentralization of university networks. Many academic departments, student organizations, services, and levels of administration comprise a university, making life difficult for IT teams trying to ensure cybersecurity compliance as widely as possible. This is why CSAT is integral to any university’s cybersecurity platform – it provides robust and distributed defenses across the institution. Â
CSAT allows universities to address many attack vectors at once and keep the institution safe at every level. But the value of CSAT goes beyond the immediate benefits of building a cyber-aware university community – it also equips students with a skill set that will help them adapt to a rapidly changing economy and digital landscape. According to a PwC surveyOpens a new window of more than 32,000 workers, 77 percent are “ready to learn new skills or completely retrain,†while almost three-quarters regard training as a matter of personal responsibility. This is a testament to the pace of change in the global economy, which is constantly becoming more competitive and skills-based. It’s also a reminder that universities should be focusing on the skills that will have the most value in the coming years, and cybersecurity awareness is one of them.Â
Universities prepare graduates to be productive employees and members of society, and the development of cybersecurity awareness is a key part of this process. By implementing an effective institution-wide CSAT program, universities will simultaneously uphold the responsibility to protect their data and educate students.
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