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Network Security

6 Layers of Cybersecurity Your College Should Consider Protecting

EDUCAUSE seminar educates colleges on the digital layers they need to keep safe.

October 9, 2014 Jessica Kennedy Leave a Comment

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Real world: Anywhere inside and outside of higher education institutions. This section is where hackers and information thieves worm their way onto a network. However, this is also where groups that assist with information breaches roam and rescue networks that are in trouble.

Network: A college’s infrastructure. This is the section where digital protection kicks in, such as firewalls, antiviruses, encryption processes and more.

Information: One of the most important entities within a college that needs protecting and is most sought after by hackers, thieves, and other bad guys. If a college’s information isn’t securely locked, non-authorized users can access it accidentally, or intentionally. If authorized members have secure credentials, they should be the only people with access to a college’s information.

Personal access: This layer entails the way that people on campus can access and use information. Authorized personnel, such as admissions officers, can have access to students information, and have a designated password to authenticate that access. These people should have heightened information security awareness and familiarization of information security policies.

People: This layer features on-campus personnel or third parties that go through personal access to obtain information. While most authorized personnel take information security seriously, this layer can also feature individuals who pose as administrators and other authorized personnel to access sensitive information on the college’s network. This can pose a threat to protecting the college’s information.

Social: This is the section that people use to talk about information and information security. People can uses social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter to start conversations about information security and how to share content safely. However, outsiders can try to steal sensitive information through phishing or creating fake social media profiles.

Cybersecurity is complicated.

Often, it leaves college administrators feeling fuzzy and creates blurred lines between IT and IS- that is, information security.

At EDUCAUSE‘s “Steps Needed to Make Your University Cybersecure,” Paul Jeffreys cleared the air regarding the layers of cybersecurity.

He says the top peel of a college’s cybersecurity entails establishing information security management systems (ISMS), which he defines as the “policies, procedures, guidelines, and associated resources…collectively managed by an organization…based upon risk assessment.”

He also says that ISMS should be utilized proportionately to ensure that the college’s assets are protected and available. That way, ISMS can help a college decide where priorities need to be set regarding cybersecurity, and can help identify potential risks.

“Availability [of ISMS] is important in a university,” says Jeffreys, Director of IT Risk Management at the University of Oxford. “If the assets are unavailable, then the university suffers an enormous loss. The integrity [is risked] and the data is not accurate.”

From there, colleges can dig down the other layers of their ISMS. The layers include: the real world, network, information, personal access, people and social.

Jeffreys says that help from the higher-ups within a college or university will help maintain a proportionate level of cybersecurity in each layer.

“The essential bit is governance and leadership,” he says. “It’s the thing that makes it all work. Everything [will] align when you have people in these roles engaged.”

Jeffreys also says that even though handling each layer similarly is difficult, proportionate treatment is necessary to make sure a college’s information security is in the right hands, and safely available for the rest of the campus.

“It’s not just making sure the right person is getting it,” he says. “It’s also about making sure [the information] is available when you need it, and that the integrity is good.”

Jessica Kennedy
Jessica Kennedy

Jessica Kennedy is an editor at TechDecisions Media, targeting the higher education market. Jessica joined the TechDecisions team in 2014 and covers technologies that improve teaching and learning.

Tagged With: Antivirus, Data Security, Higher Ed, Malware Protection

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