Ellucian Colleague ERP software can effectively streamline your higher education institution’s processes and strengthen your campus community. Optimizing features and functionality is key to getting the most out of your investment so you can better serve your students and staff.
Learn the advantages of Ellucian Colleague ERP optimization and the general roadmap for approaching this process to achieve the greatest results for your institution.
Due to the sudden shift toward remote learning, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated many institutions’ paths toward digital transformation and cloud adoption. Although in-person learning has resumed, higher education continues to move away from physical server infrastructure and toward cloud services. Let’s discuss everything IT professionals and administrators need to know about the why and how of cloud migration strategies.
At the pandemic’s peak, cloud services allowed higher education institutions to rapidly pivot to a digital learning format. However, the benefits of cloud data migration go beyond Zoom classes and learning management systems (LMS) to streamlining key IT and organizational operations. The many benefits of cloud migration include but aren’t limited to:
How can the cloud fit into your institution? Here are some real use cases for the cloud in higher education:
First, consider whether your organization is ready for this level of change. Cloud migration can impact other ongoing IT projects, so it’s important to understand your preparedness before diving into a full migration project. Make sure to address all of the following concerns:
The following steps provide a basic outline for beginning a cloud migration initiative:
Once implementation is complete, stay aware of changes within your cloud environment to reduce costs and maintain high performance. You need to constantly be up to date to ensure you can use all the features you’re paying for.
Organizations have a wide variety of cloud services they can choose from to build their overall cloud strategy.
First, there are three types of cloud configurations:
Within those configurations, there are three types of cloud services you may use:
Most cloud environments use a combination of all of the above services and configurations, creating a comprehensive solution for their computing needs.
When you begin planning a server migration to the cloud, consider the following:
If your institution needs help creating an effective server-to-cloud migration plan, consider working with an IT consulting service dedicated to the education industry.
Every year, several American schools across educational levels experience cybersecurity threats. However, higher education institutions are at a greater risk because of the amount of information they have. To ensure important, secure information stays safe, schools must understand cybersecurity risks and create comprehensive protection plans.
Below is everything you need to know about the prevalence of cyberattacks, what kinds of cyberattacks exist and how you can protect your academic institution from bad actors.
Some of the most frequent targets of computer intrusions are educational institutions. As spaces that maintain various kinds (and vast amounts) of sensitive information, from financial details to critical research, hackers have many reasons to breach their systems. Additionally, some academic institutions lack the budget to invest in proper cybersecurity measures to protect their schools, making them more vulnerable to attacks.
Recently, cybercrime in education has been on the rise. In 2019, reported cyberattacks on American schools tripled from the previous year. As COVID-19 forced instructors and students to work and study from home in 2020, protective measures further decreased and more attackers sought to target vulnerable faculty, staff, students and parents. In 2021, cybersecurity threats to the educational and research sector rose to around 1,600 per week.Â
Microsoft Security Intelligence runs an ongoing study that assesses the details of cyberattacks each month and sorts results by industry to highlight which sectors experience more attacks. In 2020, education ranked first with around 62% of all cyberattacks in a single month. In May 2022, this rose to 82% out of 7.5 million total attacks.
It can be challenging for higher education IT departments to protect against all types of attacks with changing technology, the increasing size of the technology perimeter (work and study from home), and the evolving ways that cybercriminals can reach data. This becomes even more complicated considering the many reasons hackers will target schools, including:
Understanding the common reasons hackers will target your school can help you know where you might be vulnerable and determine what to look for. Any of these attacks can occur through several types of security breaches.
Academic institutions manage unique networks with several points of contact where scammers and hackers can get in and access valuable information. When trying to understand cybersecurity threats in education institutions, learning the common types can help.
Phishing scams are when students, faculty or parents receive an email from a bad actor pretending to be someone of high importance. They might claim to be a school representative, though these scams can take on various forms — in light of COVID-19, many phishing scammers claim to be with the government trying to help people receive stimulus checks or personal protective equipment.
The goal of phishing is to gain access to login credentials, which hackers can accomplish through emailing their targets. Often, phishing emails include a link, which takes users to a login screen and prompts them to enter their credentials. If they enter the information, scammers will have access to it and be able to access their accounts for various details.
This method is especially dangerous because scammers can use it to gain several types of information from academic institutions. Phishing is extremely common, accounting for around 90% of all cyberattacks. Understanding what phishing is and how it can affect your students and staff can help you combat it. Especially when online courses and systems are prevalent in modern learning, institutions must know what precautions they should take against phishing.
Malware attacks occur when hackers steal or refuse access to systems or files. This type can come in many forms, from generalized disruption to theft, so it can be challenging for colleges and universities to combat it. People will often encounter this attack type through a trojan, a normal-looking file the user downloads that actually contains the malware. Like phishing, malware files can come through email or instant messages, allowing users to trust them.
Malware is dangerous because it can spread through contact and without it. When people receive malware on their devices, communication with other devices can allow the virus to infect them, exposing more information and devices to hackers. Devices can receive malware by connecting to public Wi-Fi, and they can spread it further when they connect to private ones, causing all other connected devices to possibly receive it.
Ransomware attacks are a type of malware. Like typical malware, this type will block access or steal files on devices, though hackers will demand a ransom to return files or access. Because it’s a malware type, people can experience them in the same way through emails, trojans and unprotected networks.
Because they want to increase their chances of payment, hackers will likely target more sensitive or critical information with ransomware. Educational institutions are at higher risk of ransomware and its applications in their networks because of the types of data they maintain and use. With several departments on campus using the same security systems, hackers can gain access to a plethora of sensitive data.
Several universities and colleges experience attacks for various reasons, from ransom to overall disruption, and cyber attackers can even include their staff and students. Schools often lack the technical support and security systems they need to prevent cyberattacks from occurring in the first place.
Some reasons your school needs strong cybersecurity measures include:
Cybersecurity measures can help you take preventative steps to keep your school’s information, finances and reputation safe.
It can be challenging for schools to determine how to protect themselves because there are few cybersecurity education requirements. The lack of industry standards can make it complex for institutions to decide where to begin when implementing strong protection practices.
If you want to add standard or extra protection to your school, there are some tips you can implement to prevent hackers from accessing your information. However, the best way to provide comprehensive cybersecurity solutions for education is to allocate funds to IT departments and use adequate staffing, allowing professionals to keep your online resources safe.
The most basic way to keep your higher education institution safe from cyberattacks is to educate your campus. Students and professors might not understand how they can play a role in keeping the school safe, so you can provide training and educational modules that give them smart cyber tips to ensure they only engage in safe practices.
Consider including:
It takes a village to fight cyber-crime. Having reporting channels such as abuse email distribution lists and awareness channels to report phishing attacks is essential. End users are the frontline security of the organizations and can let you know when they see something suspicious. Educate them in security principles and train them to avoid certain actions if they suspect an incident. Require this training for all faculty, staff, and students and do mandatory yearly modules for all users. This practice can ensure your campus stays up to date on cybersecurity practices.
While phishing attacks can give hackers access to login information, two-step authentication can help prevent them from getting into accounts. Two-step authentication will require users to connect their accounts to an external communication method, usually a phone number or another email. When someone tries to log in to that account, the login process will require a one-time code sent to that connected account in addition to their regular credentials.
Because phishing scammers won’t have access to the external phone number or email, the data will remain safe. You can further protect accounts by asking students and staff to use unique passwords and reset passwords frequently.
Higher education is a unique sector for cybersecurity because of the complex networks that institutions create. Many schools encourage students to bring personal devices like laptops and smartphones and connect them to their Wi-Fi networks when on campus. Professors handle several tasks on these networks, while administration handles sensitive information to ensure payroll, tuition, registration and other processes run smoothly.
While personal devices help students and others easily complete school- and work-related tasks on devices they already own, it can cause challenges when devices don’t have adequate protection or encounter malware that can spread through networks.
Network segmentation will divide your network into smaller subcategories, each with unique security features that restrict access and protect information. This system can allow you to serve various groups at your school while protecting data from more public-facing devices, like student laptops.
A zero-trust access (ZTA) system is a great way to protect your systems from hackers and cyberattacks. This method only gives access to the necessary people, creating secure networks.
ZTAs also require continual confirmation for people to gain access and keep hackers away from data. Users might have to participate in CAPTCHA identifications to prove they are humans or verify they want systems to remember a specific device. You can also establish geographic parameters to prevent international hackers from reaching information.
This method is very useful and effective for the increasing amount of work and study from home that the COVID pandemic has necessitated
This method can help IT departments receive and analyze data on normal user behavior, helping them identify potential threats as they occur within your network.
Academic institutions are at a higher risk because of the diverse populations that gather on campus and the varying kinds of work people are completing at any given time. Protect your school from cyberattacks by encouraging students to use virus protection on personal devices and installing anti-virus software on school machines.Â
Virus protection can help keep students, faculty and staff from downloading files or visiting sites that might contain viruses through firewalls and scanners.
As a highly targeted industry, universities and colleges need to take extra measures to protect themselves. Higher education institutions are common victims of cybercrimes because they are resources that manage crucial personal and academic information.
Schools can take steps to increase protection and security, like partnering with cybersecurity experts to create comprehensive coverage. Ferrilli specializes in higher education institutions with decades of experience, allowing us to understand your industry’s unique needs and challenges. We can work with you to analyze risks and develop a customized security system that will keep your institution, your research, and your users (students, faculty and staff) safe.
Contact us today at 888.864.3282 to discover how we can keep your information out of the hands of hackers.Â
