The education sector was already coping with a slew of problems, including a lack of resources, a staffing and training shortage, and a financing shortfall. Then came COVID-19. This resulted in a tremendous upheaval and disruption of teaching and learning methodologies. The circumstance necessitated a quick transition to remote working and a re-evaluation of long-standing systems and processes.
The industry has been exposed as a result of this abrupt transformation.
Overnight, on top of the typical academic year procedures, the educational system had to re-evaluate everything it knew in order to continue teaching the minds of our future and to protect students, employees, data, and intellectual property. Cybersecurity must be a top concern for educational institutions. Despite considerable obstacles in the industry, such as a lack of manpower and financing and resources, cyberattacks in education are no less common or serious. Indeed, as breaches in schools and higher education become more widely reported, they appear to be increasing in occurrence year after year.
In recent years, we’ve heard about ransom attacks causing financial harm – such as the one at the University of Calgary, where the institution allegedly handed over $20k to cybercriminals – and malware attacks causing widespread disruption – such as the one that forced the Minnesota School District to shut down for a day while IT professionals rebuilt the system. When the Covid-19 pandemic brushed across the planet in 2020, Educational institutes got closed and education was moved to students’ homes. Accordingly, our country similarly to considerable others encountered the challenge of an accidental and enriched move to online learning.
This represents an important time to contemplate technology, pedagogy/andragogy, and education. Digital technology played a big role in empowering teachers to show students at a distance using tools that enabled both synchronous and asynchronous communication.
As more education functionaries coordinate the Teaching-Learning Process via the web or digital means, they’re constantly in jeopardy and are targeted by hackers through various sorts of malware and cyber-attacks.
A report by Check Point Research (CPR), in august 2021 states that the education sector in India was flooded quite more approximated to other enterprises globally, participating in 5,196 invasions per week on an average.
Online education, being the foremost prevalent and indispensable medium nowadays, can make students and teachers more exposed to cyber security attacks equally. While both private and public schools are using Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Cisco WebEx, or Skype, incessant and precarious cyber practices have put many students and teachers in danger. To prevent these cyber security threats take up some online courses and get yourself updated.
A reputed school in Bangalore had to prevent a web class on Zoom after a porn video popped up and an unknown identity had entered a Zoom class for a Jamshedpur-based school and began tampering with the shared screens.
Zoom bombings are a standard case across the world. because the Internet has kept us connected within the pandemic, the danger involved has become more serious. Devices, apps, games, and social media are a huge part of most kids’ lives, whether they like it or not. Despite age limitations, an increasing number of minors are accessing platforms before the age of thirteen.
This isn’t all negative. Time spent online can provide opportunities for creativity and connection, but it can also be dangerous.
There are encouraging evidence that we – and our children – are becoming more aware of the dangers of exposing personal information online.
However, technological advancements continue to pose new threats to our confidentiality. When we use smartphones, we – and our children – encounter spam, scams, impersonation, and fraud, to name a few.
We live in a technologically advanced world that is rapidly evolving as a result of digitization.
With the advancement of technology, we are becoming more vulnerable to hackers who are fast developing more complex methods of committing cybercrime. It is fair to conclude that such cyber-attacks are becoming more common in the education sector, as more and more breaches in schools and higher education institutions are frequently disclosed.
As a result, covering and protecting the education sector with cybersecurity becomes critical.
Some examples from the past
In 2016, two attacks were reported: the University of Calgary was hit by ransomware, and the northern Minnesota school district was shut down for a day due to a malware attack. Following a security compromise in 2018, CCTV camera footage from multiple Blackpool schools wound up on a US website. These distressing examples point to a long-term decline in student safety.
Educational institutions that are entrusted with the safety of their pupils should have a solid cybersecurity infrastructure that eliminates all risks and eliminates the possibility of a breach. These institutions must recognize that cybersecurity is critical not only to protect against financial loss and avoid interruption, but also to safeguard students from danger.
The educational sector’s role
The education industry must secure its apps and systems and handle any cybersecurity risks that may arise. DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) assaults are particularly widespread in this industry. The attack’s goal is to cause significant network disruption and productivity loss at the institute.
This is a simple attack that can be carried out by inexperienced hackers if the target network is not sufficiently secure. Several cases of students or professors launching a DDoS attack have appeared in the past, with a variety of motivations ranging from requesting a day off to protesting something.
Aside from that, there is data theft, which has the potential to damage students at all levels of schooling. The information could be sold or used as a weapon to extort money if the data is misused.
Surface to Attack
Hackers will always be interested in the education sector. Mostly due to the size of the assault surface. The industry’s sheer size, as well as the potential for significant financial gain, data theft, and espionage, makes it an attractive target for cybercriminals. Anyone is a potential target, from students to employees, faculty members, and third-party providers.
Because of their riches and power, other industries, such as telecommunications and finance, are obvious targets. But, if you ignore the fact that the education industry, like many others, is huge, what exactly is the benefit of hacking a student or employee account?
Theft of Data
Every educational establishment, from kindergarten to postgraduate, has a lot of data. This information comprises a variety of private and personal details, such as addresses, phone numbers, complete names, sensitive information such as medical records, personal requests, and much more.
The greater the assault surface, the more probable an attack will pay off in terms of time and resources. There are about 2.3 million students in education in the United Kingdom, and little under half a million workers in higher education. With such a huge assault surface, there is bound to be a weak spot somewhere.
This information can be sold and used to exploit individuals or entire schools once it has been acquired and stolen. If sensitive information is obtained, it can be used as a bargaining chip in the case of a ransomware attack.
Monetary gain
Not only does a successful ransomware assault benefit the attacker financially, but direct attacks on payment systems are also common.
The university and private schooling systems rely heavily on student fees. With the average student paying over £9000 per year for their education (more than $12,000 in the United States), excluding the additional costs of living arrangements paid into a single faculty-connected account, and with over 2.3 million students at university in the United Kingdom alone, the financial gain of targeting university systems and the benefits of targeting university systems are significant.
Most payments are made in one go through university web portals in lump sums. The benefits are enormous if a bad actor can breach this site or establish a phishing campaign to fool the user into sending money to the wrong account.
“Cybercrime specialists at the FBI highlighted one specific effort that took tens of thousands of dollars from students back in 2018,” according to a 2020 Forbes storey on financial aid fraud. They’ve reported on a number of other initiatives targeting institutions and student bodies around the country since then.”
Espionage
Universities are the custodians of intellectual property that is both valuable and significant. Espionage is frequently carried out as a result of data theft, depending on the nature of the material stolen.
Medical and engineering research can yield useful insights that can then be applied in three ways.
1) To have a better understanding of the progress of a certain subject or endeavour. This information can then be sold to competitors or nation-state actors in order to sway economic, social, or political outcomes.
2) Individuals, researchers, and departments can be kept hostage in exchange for their sensitive information. Stopping research can often be more expensive than making the demand.
3) Researchers’ access to their own data can be controlled. Development in a particular field (for example, COVID-19-related research) can be hindered by making it possible to hide or restrict the user’s own information.
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)
Attacks include Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, which are like Nation State Actor and espionage. These assaults are designed to infiltrate a vulnerable network, flood it with traffic, target a host, disturb productivity, and, in essence, stop or crash systems. The attack is difficult to stop since it comes from a variety of places. The motives for such an attack can range from a personal grudge against a specific organisation, the ability to slow down an organisation in order to cost them time and money, or the ability to serve as a distraction to allow for other infiltrations.
Threats and How to Reduce Them
Schools must implement cyber-threat mitigation methods to protect student data, research, processes, and finances.
To accomplish so, security patches must be kept up to date, and methods for defending and testing environments must be implemented. Analyse, prioritise, and respond to threats rapidly by visualising and understanding harmful or unusual activities. This means that Managed Detection & Response is the only method to protect data, students, staff, and operations.