Dive Brief:
- Campuses should coordinate across departments — including legal, PR, risk management, finance and human resources — to identify the necessary steps to take in the event of a cyberattack on a campus network.
- A new infographic from Ed Tech: Focus on Higher Ed says that identifying the extent of the breach, the associated costs and the potential victims of an attack are key to developing the internal and external communications about the crisis, and in making sure that all legal elements are understood by the administration and key stakeholders.
- Containing and eradicating the source of the data breach is critical for IT personnel, and recovering lost data or determining new solutions for networking service the priority in the aftermath of a tech crisis.
Dive Insight:
While most college leaders understand the importance of network security, few if any believe that hackers would ever consider targeting the campus for anything from prank malware placement to a full capturing of data and information. Schools must be prepared for either event, especially when considering the rising vulnerability of college networks as a top target for hackers.
Beyond finding the right personnel, it is up to CIOs to identify hacking culture best practices which have specifically targeted higher education in recent months, and to engage vendors with specific services to prevent similar attempts on their campus. While technology and workarounds are constantly evolving, staying ahead of breach culture and informing students and faculty of their role in breach prevention is now a priority in an age of hyper-connectivity.