Making The Grade

AS DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTS BECOME INCREASINGLY EMBEDDED IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS THEY BECOME MORE SUSCEPTIBLE TO CYBER-ATTACKS. WITH ELEMENTS SUCH AS OPEN NETWORKS, LARGE VOLUMES OF DATA AND INCREASING ENDPOINTS, HOW CAN UNIVERSITY CISOS KEEP CYBER THREATS AT BAY?

- 

Universities are key players in the battle against cyber-attacks as they both carry out research that advances cybersecurity while also training the next generation of cyber-defence specialists.

They can, however, fall victim themselves to hackers who may, for example, be interested in getting their hands on the sensitive data they store.

It is an issue of particular importance in UAE given the huge expansion of the university sector in the Emirates over the past two decades.

Like some other GCC nations, the country has seen the growth of its own higher education institutions as well as the launch of campuses linked to overseas universities, such as the University of Birmingham Dubai and New York University Abu Dhabi.

Morten Illum, vice president, EMEA, Aruba, a Hewlett-Packard company, highlights several reasons why advances in technology have created new vulnerabilities.

According to Ilum, while mobile connectivity, the cloud and IoT (which may be represented at universities by everything from security cameras to smart laboratory equipment) have brought benefits, they have also “provided hackers with a plethora of opportunities” to exploit gaps in cyber defences.

The explosion of IoT devices has left organisations of all kinds vulnerable to infected devices, says Illum, adding that this is particularly true of universities, which rely heavily on bring-your-own-device (BYOD) environments.

“Educational institutions typically have vast campuses and user bases, a large variety of devices trying to connect to their networks at any given time, and a huge amount of data passing through their systems, all of which presents a very real security risk,” he says.

“In addition, younger generations (i.e. students) tend to be early adopters of new technologies, which means that their odds of being exposed to scams and other social engineering attacks is significantly increased.