Top 6 Higher Education Security Risks and Issues

One major issue with college students and campus visitors is that they have a tendency to utilize USB drives and plug them into networked computers. From their students forgetting to log off their machines leaving hacker open to finding their way around the network via some type of open connection (Intergrationpartners.com, 2017).

6 Major Campus Security Issues:

Phishing and Social Engineering Attacks

Dealing with a variety of levels within the organization (from students to teachers), it’s harder to control the environment even though students and teacher lack the knowledge of phishing because students and teachers have a tendency to click on just about anything including pop-ups and attachments (Intergrationpartners.com, 2017). By separating users, better security practices can take place because it allows the network security team to help narrow down the problem better.

The IT Crunch: Limited Resources

The increase cost when dealing with security related issues and available resources (Intergrationpartners.com, 2017). Many times the resources are not available to help support the organization when it comes to security.

Regulatory Burdens and Secure Data Efforts

FERPA is very critical to the education sector. HIPAA is also very critical to the organization because schools hold students and staff member’s healthcare records in their on-site health center (Intergrationpartners.com, 2017).

System Malware-Zero Day Vulnerabilities and More

Education systems security and/or IT employees have to evaluate the architecture when checking for vulnerabilities (Intergrationpartners.com, 2017). They have to ask themselves: can hackers get host names? IP addresses or any information related to their printers (Intergrationpartners.com, 2017). With the use of multi-factor authentication to make sure the correct users are logging in the system instead just knowing a password and obtaining access without a secondary way to verify someone’s login. Doing so can help reduce risks within the organization systems.

Protecting Personally Identifiable Information

Keeping personal data safe within the organization (Intergrationpartners.com, 2017). Following rules and regulations governed by leaders of the organization to make sure everyone’s information is protected.

Overall, making sure end-users are educated when it comes to phishing and the use of USB drives can save many security professional from worrying. Using online drives such as OneDrive or Google Drive can help users prevent the spread of trojans, worms and viruses. Making sure users are logged off their system by setting applications to automatically log off after a certain period of inactivity is always good options to help remain safe and secure from hackers.