As institutions of higher learning including universities and colleges start adopting mobile technologies, they are finding themselves being targeted by hackers and other malicious actors. Doug Bonderud is an award-winning writer capable of bridging the gap between complex and conversational across technology, innovation and the human condition. Getty Images. Personal data of 326,000 patients compromised. Now, often dragged kicking and screaming into the connected world of enterprise IT, manufacturing organizations are being exposed to the efficiencies (such as workflow enhancements and improved data analysis) and th… All-in-one IT system monitoring and management platform with powerful automation. Everything you need to get your questions answered about Pulseway features and functions. ... ($160,000) as fine for a security breach which compromised personal data of 19500 students. With National Cybersecurity Awareness Month highlighting the need for institutions to develop comprehensive strategies that drive widespread ownership of responsibility, it’s the ideal time for colleges to analyze current breach patterns and develop cybersecurity best practices that are both theoretically sound and realistic. 2019 brought a slew of higher educational data breaches with attack vectors ranging from malware, to phishing, to ransomware. January 17, 2019: Security researcher Troy Hunt discovered a massive database on cloud storage site, MEGA, which contained 773 million email addresses and 22 million unique passwords collected from thousands of different breaches dating back to 2008. Security breaches occur through hacking, disclosure, physical loss of data, portable, and stationary devices affecting the institutions negatively. In fact, UConn Health and its parent body, the University of Connecticut are facing a class-action lawsuit following the data breach that puts the identities of several patients at risk. Universities and colleges hit by cyberattacks don’t just suffer immediate damages. Higher Education Cloud Security Is The Most Critical Topic of 2019 As more colleges and universities transition to the cloud, higher education cloud security can no longer be treated as an elective As they say, “the writing is on the wall” for the eventual transition to cloud … UConn Health is the academic wing that oversees education in medicine, biomedical research, and clinical care. The victims were those who had previously interacted with the employee’s email account. These platforms digest an array of different data sources … Copy link ... and the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi), showed a 100% success rate in getting through the … She also highlights the alarming trend of old attack patterns causing problems for campuses, noting that REN-ISAC regularly sees reports on the fast-spreading worm Conficker — raising questions about why university IT infrastructure remains vulnerable to a virus first identified in 2008. So, what’s the solution? Even if they do, “paying ransoms emboldens criminals to target other organizations” and may make blackmailed organizations more likely to be targeted again. Unsecured web applications provide easy access for hackers to gain entry into any business to conduct a variety of crimes. On January 7, 2019, the college confirmed the identities of the people whose data had been compromised. EDUCAUSE's major policy issues in 2018—information security and breach notification, net neutrality, and web accessibility—will all continue to evolve in 2019, but they will likely be joined by another issue of major interest to EDUCAUSE members: potential federal privacy legislation. Two decades old personal and payroll details hacked. How do colleges convert broad threat vectors and specific attack types into real-world, relevant and reliable cybersecurity best practices? The author finds that larger more financially well-off schools are targeted and that social security numbers are the most likely type of data stolen. The suit was filed by victims who claimed WSU’s data security was at best ‘questionable’. Network firewalls Monitoring those systems has brought closer attention to the role of the cybersecurity officer. It would be “disastrous if any of this information fell into the wrong hands”, he told Times Higher Education. The University of Greenwich had to cough up £120,000 ($160,000) as fine for a security breach which compromised personal data of 19500 students. The long-term impact of data breaches affects staff, students and IT infrastructure. For those that took more than 100 days, the average data breach cost was $4.21 million — more than $1 million more. In 2016, Milford says, ransomware was “a huge moneymaker” for threat actors using a one-to-one attack vector; single workstations were frozen, and payouts typically hovered around $250. Of those, 2,013 were confirmed data breaches. Former students are current power brokers, while some of the parents of the current students wield significant influence. Pulseway lets you remotely monitor and manage your IT infrastructure effortlessly. Effortlessly and automatically support your businesses IT environment and end-users, from anywhere and at any time. Engage, ask and answer questions and interact with other Pulseway users to share and collaborate ideas. In February of this year, Washington State University (WSU) settled a class-action suit for the data breach that impacted 4.5 million people. loss, portable device breach, stationary device breach, or unintended disclosures (Data Breaches n.d.). According to the 2019 Cost of Data Breach Study by IBM and the Ponemon Institute, the average cost for data breaches in the U.S. educational industry has risen to $142 per capita (or per record lost), which is $45 above the worldwide average. Inventories that keep track of network hardware and devices 2. Fact or Fallacy: What’s the Best Way to Improve Campus Wi-Fi Performance? This research paper provides a literature review of studies on data breaches in higher education and analyzes data on the types of data breaches from 2005-2017. Those incidents revealed vulnerabilities in IT infrastructure in the most prestigious institutions across the world, questioning their trust and reputation. Breach exposed data of students and their families. This trio of attack vectors — ransomware, phishing emails and existing vulnerabilities — leverage a worrisome take on the “three Vs” of Big Data: MORE ON CYBERSECURITY: Check out why K–12 schools should choose to upgrade to a next-generation firewall. Earn a Microcredential Showcase your expertise with peers and employers. About 31 percent of data breaches originate internally, according to the paper. From a data security perspective, such institutions are important because they hold vast amounts of data belonging to a large portion of the population. On February 27, 2019, Florida Keys Community College announced a data breach arising from unauthorized access to employee email that occurred between May 5, 2018, and November 5, 2018. In addition, a new public service announcement from IC3 and the FBI recommends against paying any ransom because there’s no guarantee attackers will provide valid decryption keys. A free lightweight version of the product that lets you monitor and manage 2 systems for free. for your Android or iOS device, Get Real time Information and take instant control of your IT systems, University data breaches in 2019 that are hard to ignore. Other highlights from the 2019 almanac: ... Higher education information security leaders should be proactive about protecting student data and other sensitive information. According to Capital One’s statement, no credit card number or log-in credentials were leaked, and less than 1% of Social Security Numbers were compromised. Adoption of mobile technologies by colleges and universities has contributed to increased malicious attacks. The microsite was developed by the university to keep data secure. 3 Ways to Add Value to Online Instruction and Redefine Student Success, Looking Ahead to the Top Higher Ed IT Issues of 2021. According to research sponsored by IBM Security, 101 confirmed data disclosures occurred in 2017 at U.S. universities, up from just 15 in 2014. Hackers broke into Slate, an applicant management software, used by Oberlin College in Ohio, Grinnell College in Iowa and Hamilton College in New York and got access to applicants’ information. The financial security of higher education is experiencing a bigger threat than student retention. The vulnerability found in Georgia Tech’s web application speaks to the risks of higher-ed data breaches–risks academic institutions and businesses face daily. Here, post-secondary institutions benefit from a five-factor approach: Cybersecurity trends offer big-picture views of potential post-secondary risk. While education lags behind industries such as finance, healthcare and public administration in total breach volume, Verizon’s “2019 Data Breach Investigations Report” notes an uptick in both the volume of confirmed data disclosure attacks in education — 99 of 382 incidents — and in the variety of threats. These exchanges were poorly monitored, causing malware. Reducing the time it takes to detect a security breach can result in significant savings. Hackers acquired the data from an unprotected microsite dating all the way back to 2004. The applicants were sent emails, offering them access to confidential information regarding their admission file for a fee. The study adds that more than 1,000 distributed denial of service attacks – which shut off access to data or networks – were launched against 241 different education … They knew it was a blunder, which is why they never appealed against the enforcement agency's decision. This might be due to their immersion into scholarly pursuits and hence inherent struggle to find a balance between academic openness and IT security. A malware attack on portable hard drives containing confidential patient information was breached. Disclosing the identity of these students may have been a part of international espionage to leverage information as the elites of the world study in this institute. Each applicant ended up paying more than $3800 for their file. Related: Don’t be complacent about data security. An estimated 200 citizens had names, addresses, personal identification numbers, and ID card details shared with media outlets. Educational institutions have been slow to embrace network security strategies. The report deep dives into the evolution of the threat landscape, who is perpetrating attacks, the top attack types, and assets affected by breaches. Campuses are struggling with effective cybersecurity. Unknown – OnePlus, November 23, 2019. Hackers not only made money, but also got hold of valuable personal data including names, addresses, birthdays, and so forth. Malware defense mechanisms 5. Not only are security breaches in higher education costs but they tarnish the reputation of the breached institution. This was due to an employee falling prey to a phishing scam. In higher education, phishing emails and ransomware remain the top threats. The manufacturing industry has been an air-gapped environment from the rest of the business and the outside world, if for no other reason than the paranoia that company information could fall into the wrong hands. The hard drives were used to create a weekly backup of research data which went through several handoffs. More than a data breach – cyber espionage campaign on Higher Education Visit Some Of Our Other Technology Websites: Figuring Out the Right Mix of Collaboration Tools, Copyright © 2020 CDW LLC 200 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Vernon Hills, IL 60061. Run every aspect of your business with ticketing, project management, billing and CRM. In an unfortunate incident, a hacker accessed employees’ email accounts which compromised patient names, addresses, social security numbers, medical records, and so on. Get started within a few clicks and experience the most powerful IT management platform in the industry. To develop best practices capable of meeting cyber threats head-on, IT leaders must first identify common threat vectors: How are malicious attackers gaining network access? For higher education IT leaders, the fundamental tenets of IoT operational assurance include the ability to automate the discovery and classification of IoT devices, identify baseline IoT behavior, detect anomalies, and proactively enforce security policies when an IoT device or a group of them deviate from acceptable behavior. These incidents illustrate the need for IT departments to embrace a proactive stance against cyber attacks. Here are the top university data breaches in 2019 that shook the cybersecurity world. Cyberattacks on higher education institutions are on the rise, ... Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report suggests that espionage is the motive behind 11 percent of attacks on educational institutions. For example, a recent survey found that after a successful attack, students’ risk perception temporarily increased — even as their overall attitude toward cybersecurity remained indifferent. HB 1943 Status: Enacted, Act 1030 Amends the Personal Information Protection Act; relates to biometric data generated by automatic measurements of an individual's biological characteristics including fingerprints, faceprint, retina or iris scan, hand geometry, voiceprint analysis, deoxyribonucleic acid, or any other unique biological characteristics of an individual if the characteristics are used by the owner or licensee to uniquely authenticate the individual's identity when the individual accesses a system or acc… Seamless integrated backup for workstations and servers with disaster recovery capabilities. University data breaches is a wakeup call for IT admins, tasked with securing confidential information of students, employees and other stakeholders. On October 19, the college discovered suspicious activity. Here are a few tips leaders should keep in mind: Start with a security risk assessment. Share . In March 2019, hackers accessed admission information from colleges in Oberlin, Hamilton, and Grinnell. The Fast Facts: More than 4 million of Bulgaria’s 7 million citizens were affected by a security breach in June 2019, which compromised personally-identifiable information and financial records lifted from the country’s tax agency. Personally identifiable information (PII) of 636 students and their families were compromised. According to the OnePlus security team, an unauthorized party managed to access customer information by exploiting a vulnerability in the OnePlus website. Written by Betsy Foresman May 10, 2019 | EDSCOOP The education sector is afflicted by many different kinds of threats, from software errors, social engineering attacks and inadequately secured email credentials, according to annual cross-industry analysis of cybersecurity … If you’re concerned your … Security Breaches in Higher Education Protecting Admission data: A multifactor authentication platform . This study explores data breaches in higher education institutions. “There’s no doubt the collection of data as a valuable asset has become commonplace in higher education: ... Educational institutions house large amounts of personal information but may not be equipped with enough network security to prevent breaches. Check out our recent stories from our blog that our editors selected for you, Secure Your Valuable Data With Pulseway Cloud Backup, How to get acquired or merge with another MSP, Pulseway Launches Remote Control for macOS, Download our mobile app According to ZDNet, one university recently disclosed a data breach that saw the personally identifiable information (PII) of both students and families compromised after an incident in May, and similar incidents were reported earlier this year by other institutions. … Interestingly, Greenwich is the first university to be fined under the Data Protection Act of 1998. 3 April 2019. While education lags behind industries such as finance, healthcare and public administration in total breach volume, Verizon’s “ 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report ” notes an uptick in both the volume of confirmed data disclosure attacks in education — 99 of 382 incidents — and in the variety of threats. Learning From Higher Ed Security Breaches By Ken Lynch - Mar 20, 2019 The higher education is not free from data threats and risks whose primary target is their financial security followed by student retention. By the time you read this article, at least seven victims would have lost their data in some parts of the world. The focus by ED on appropriate protocols, technology and training is supported by statistical findings, including the 2019 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report determination that human errors account for 35% of data breaches in the education sector. Higher Education Data Breaches Draw Response from Federal Agencies Michael Best & Friedrich LLP USA July 29 2019 Higher education institutions have long been a … Consequently, 2019 witnessed sophisticated cyber-attacks on various institutions that were completely unprepared. By 2017, the number of cyber attacks vastly grew to 393 (in 2012 there were only 5). Share . Cyberattacks have exposed sensitive information about students’ applications and medical histories , altered grades and attendance records, and jeopardized payroll funds . Verizon recently released its 2019 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), which looked at 41,686 security incidents. Here are the top university data breaches in 2019 that shook the cybersecurity world. Regular scans to detect vulnerabilities 4. Here are the savviest higher education IT leaders, bloggers, podcasters and social media personalities you should follow. Security breaches happen with frightening regularity in higher education. Today, she says, “we see malicious actors doubling down and making models better,” with attackers developing ways to infect and compromise entire networks. The 2020 Dean's List: 30 Higher Ed IT Influencers Worth a Follow, Hackers Evolve Attack Methods in Higher Education Breaches, Defense-in-Depth (DiD) Strategies: Protect Higher Ed Users Against Cyberthreats, Solving Evolving Security Challenges for Remote Campuses. And, there is a good chance one of them would be a university. According to the Ponemon Institute study, companies that detected a breach in less than 100 days had an estimated average total cost of $3.11 million. Social Security numbers and personal health data compromised. If you are wondering what this might be, data breaches are the answer. Those technical controls include: 1. According to the statistic provided by Verizon’s annual Data Breach Investigations Report, the frequency of security breaches affecting universities multiplied almost ten times. Malicious actors target institutional data because it pays off. Colleges Optimize Traffic on Busy Residence Hall Networks, Universities Partner with Cities to Boost Budgets for Technology Projects, EDUCAUSE 2018: Software-Defined Networks Advance Research Computing, Q&A: Center for CIO Studies’ Wayne Brown Explains How IT Leaders Need to Communicate, a new public service announcement from IC3 and the FBI, Assessment is the first step in effective cybersecurity, Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT), IBM and HBCUs Partner in New Quantum Center, 3 Ways to Adapt Your Cybersecurity Messaging for Generation Z, Simplify Device Procurement with the Right IT Partner, Review: SonicWall TZ400 Firewall Brings Advanced Security to Higher Education, EDUCAUSE 2018: 6 Culture Changes to Pave the Way for Digital Transformation. Many institutions of higher learning believe they are immune. Education's openness a unique security challenge, Verizon says in data breach report. Adobe. Adobe left a database containing 7.5 million Creative Cloud user records exposed publicly. Mark Wilson joined the University of Sou… Higher education institutions are combating these challenges with technical controls, usage policies, and community education efforts. There’s no shortage of cybersecurity threats for post-secondary schools. Share page. Learn and Advance in Your Career Explore professional development opportunities to advance your knowledge and career. Get our specially created content designed to show how Pulseway can really transform your IT operations. You need to be a step ahead of hackers to save the university from public embarrassment and expensive lawsuits. An MSP Platform that lets you manage the technology needs of small business - simply, efficiently, and from anywhere. The data breach includes names, addresses, date of births, personal emails, tax file numbers, bank details, passport, and academic records. According to Kim Milford, executive director of the Research and Education Networks Information Sharing and Analysis Center (REN-ISAC), “there’s nothing new” about the most popular attack strategies. This predicament is too lucrative for cybercriminals to turn down. According to Verizon’s Data breach investigations report, the education industry experienced 292 cyber incidents in 2018 resulting in 101 system breaches. Be on top of everything happening in your infrastructure and neutralize issues before they can cause any real damage — all from a single pane of glass. Records Breached: 106 million In July of 2019, sensitive information of over 100 million Americans and 6 million Canadians who had applied for Capital One credit cards was breached. close. The information was shared on a popular hacking forum where they could be shared with other cyber thieves. Access control and data encryption protocols 3. About 200,000 people were affected by the hacking that took place at the Australian National University. Every 39 seconds hackers win. But reducing the impact of pervasive threats — phishing, ransomware and historic vulnerabilities — demands best practices capable of identifying key weaknesses, engaging network users and securing network infrastructure. Indiatoday.in has reported that the popular Chinese smartphone manufacturer, OnePlus, has suffered a significant data breach. Interestingly, Greenwich is the first university to be fined under the Data Protection Act of 1998. Hackers acquired the data from an unprotected microsite dating all the way back to 2004. Tips leaders should be proactive about Protecting student data and other sensitive.... To show how Pulseway can really transform your IT infrastructure in the industry a university ) as fine for security. Its 2019 data breach Report was a blunder, which looked at 41,686 security incidents institutional data because pays. 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