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Education Cybersecurity Threats To Overcome

Education Cybersecurity Weekly is a curated weekly news overview for those who are concerned about the Education industry. It provides brief summaries and links to articles and news across a spectrum of cybersecurity and technology topics that are specific to the industry.

The director of Central Utah Educational Services Jason Strate organized a curious experiment, revealing that phishing emails are number one problem for his district.
Not so long ago we proposed that “support this site by sharing your computer” would be a common phrase due to the sharp increase of malicious cryptocurrency activities on Higher Ed institutions. This time has come – 85% of cryptomining efforts were directed on college campuses, according to the Vectra report.

K–12 schools shouldn’t receive an “F” in cybersecurity

EdTech Magazine on January 25, 2019

Sometimes the world seems to be too unfair. Otherwise how to explain the fact that K-12 sector, storing credentials and personal information of kids and their parents, is one of the most popular target among hackers?

Although education security experts commonly tend to focus on typical cyber attacks – phishing, malware sent in emails, adware and targeted attacks, there are threats leading to no less malicious impact and loss of time and money. However, IT staff can mitigate them in several ways:

  1. segment the infrastructure by separating systems and users based on their roles and use policies;
  2. monitoring and analyzing network traffic is essential for detecting anomalies in traffic or user/device behavior;
  3. in addition to providing students and staff members with actual cybersecurity skills, it is important to establish standards and policies and strictly follow them.

Phishing challenge for Utah teachers

EdScoop on January 22, 2019

The director of Central Utah Educational Services Jason Strate organized a curious experiment, revealing that phishing emails are number one problem for his district.

The audit showed that every second teacher fell for phishing emails in a test – 52% of participated teachers clicked on links and handed over personal information.

Strate emphasized that the audit was helpful as it showed that the organization had been focused on the wrong kind of cybersecurity training. Thus, instead of talking about passwords, now they discuss modern forms of cyber attacks.

Teachers are trusting people, they care about kids, they want do the best for them. So we are taking steps to increase our training with teachers on phish threats, so that we can avoid situations like a teacher responding to a phish from a potential parent that is not really a parent and providing them with PII.

Jason Strate, the director of Central Utah Educational Services

College campuses face cryptocurrency mining threat

EdTech Magazine Focus on Higher Ed on January 22, 2019

Not so long ago we proposed that “support this site by sharing your computer” would be a common phrase due to the sharp increase of malicious cryptocurrency activities on Higher Ed institutions. This time has come – 85% of cryptomining efforts were directed on college campuses, according to the Vectra report.

Actually, we should remember that cryptomining is just another type of malware, so the classic anti-malware tools to block and clean up infections are still suitable. However, IT teams need to ensure that they also can resolve the in-browse attacks. Then IT specialists should check the intrusion prevention systems to verify that in-browser mining C&C is being properly detected.

Many students may not consider cryptomining as a security problem because they do not know how their PC can be infected. Therefore, regularly review IPS logs and send end-user notification about the consequences of the block occurrence, so that users would better understand potential threats.

Something that robots will never replace

eCampus News on January 24, 2019

If you intended to pack the bag, join the nomads and come back when machines and humans will finally fairly share the work, it is better to stop and spend three minutes reading this news.

The recent survey has revealed that employers are still asking for workers with strong soft skills, despite the increase of technological advancements, allowing many jobs to be automated. The top list of the required skills for employees includes listening skills (74%), attentiveness (70%), effective communication (69%), critical thinking (67%), interpersonal and learning skills (both 65%).

Critical thinking deserves a special attention since more than two-thirds of the employers say this skill is very important in their organization and essential to gain leadership positions, while 73% of students think it is very important when applying for jobs.

These results show that we must not underestimate the power of the people factor in the workforce. Technology and automation will continue to change and replace jobs, but there are skills that cannot be automated, such as the ability to think critically or problem solve.

Michael Hansen, Cengage CEO

The post Education Cybersecurity Threats To Overcome appeared first on EdGuards – Security for Education.


*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from EdGuards – Security for Education authored by edguards. Read the original post at: https://edguards.com/egnews/education-cybersecurity-weekly/education-cybersecurity-threats-overcome/