COMMENTARY | Education organizations need robust cybersecurity measures

MANILA, Philippines — In an increasingly digital world, educational organizations are facing more sophisticated cybersecurity threats, and these institutions must rely on collecting and maintaining sensitive data to effectively carry out their core missions. Safeguarding this data must remain a top priority, especially as schools continue to digitally transform to bring new innovation and capabilities to their students, educators and sponsors. 

Known ransomware attacks increased by 68% in 2023, a study by MalwareBytes found in its annual 2024 State of Malware Report, and last year there was a 70% increase in the education sector, making 2023 “the worst ransomware year on record for education.”

“Cybersecurity as a core competency” was again selected as the top priority in the EduCause Top-10 List, which identifies the most critical issues affecting colleges and universities each year. It is imperative that education organizations have robust cybersecurity measures in place to help mitigate cyberthreats. 

Below are top five tips for all education organizations to follow in enhancing their day-to-day cybersecurity: 

To help ensure all employees are on the same page and have a clear reference point for any queries, the best starting point for education organizations is to draw up a simple cybersecurity policy.

This should clearly outline the expectations and duty of all employees to adhere to the collective standards required to enhance cybersecurity. The policy should be clearly communicated throughout an organization and made easily accessible across internal systems. The policy should include the following four tips as actions for all employees. 

This is something we all take for granted in our personal lives but is imperative in keeping potential bad actors at bay, particularly when dealing with sensitive or confidential data.

Employees must be required to use unique credentials for all work-related login functions with set rules that help ensure that passwords are strong, both in length and complexity. This means bad actors cannot unlock multiple doors across an organization through accessing one set of credentials. 

It is obviously important to have the