A Matter of Trust
Institutions are balancing strategies to safeguard privacy and secure institutional data while championing innovation, transparency, and collaboration. Higher education can demonstrate it values people through protecting institutions amid change, taking a risk management approach to privacy, and establishing common ground in how higher education collaborates with industry partners.
Protecting Institutions Amid Change
Against the backdrop of seismic social, technological, economic, environmental, and political changes, higher education cybersecurity and privacy professionals must navigate new questions about what needs to be done to keep institutions and students safe and secure.
Review the 2024 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Cybersecurity and Privacy Edition
Psst! Participate in the EDUCAUSE Cybersecurity and Privacy Managers Institute - March 2025 to level up your cybersecurity and privacy leadership skills.
Maturing Privacy Strategies
The strategic use of data has become essential to institutional success. Yet, as more data is collected, stored, and shared on campuses, privacy risks continue to grow. In response, privacy strategies are becoming increasingly nuanced.
Watch “Privacy at the Forefront of Data Risk Management,” EDUCAUSE Review
Psst! Participate in the EDUCAUSE Data Literacy Institute - June 2025 to learn about effective data-informed decision-making.
Establishing Common Ground
Common ground in how higher education collaborates with industry partners is key to efficiency and risk mitigation. The newly released Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT) 4 is an essential, community-built tool to evaluate solution providers' cybersecurity and privacy practices against multiple standards and regulatory requirements. The latest version includes specific questions on privacy and artificial intelligence, greater flexibility for institutional evaluation, and improved documentation.
Psst! Join our team for an open-house-style office hour this February to ask questions and learn more about HECVAT 4. View available dates on the HECVAT web page.
Showcase Webinar
Join the Showcase Webinar | A Matter of Trust on March 3 to learn more about strategies for using higher education cybersecurity and privacy efforts to build trust.
Preparing to safeguard privacy and secure data doesn’t stop here. Continue on to find additional resources and insights from your peers, industry experts, and EDUCAUSE.
Hear from the Community and Analysts
Feed Your Curiosity
Hear from Your Peers in EDUCAUSE Review
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Nichole Arbino and Nick Lewis, "HECVAT 4: Better than Ever"
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Lois Brooks, David Escalante, Marc Hoit and Don Welch, "2025 EDUCAUSE Top 10 #4: A Matter of Trust"
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David Seidl, "EDUCAUSE Shop Talk | AI and Cybersecurity" [podcast]
- Isaac Galvan and Stephen Collette, "EDUCAUSE Shop Talk | Unlocking Trust: Protecting Privacy and Securing Data" [podcast]
Dive into the Data and Research
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Nicole Muscanell, "EDUCAUSE QuickPoll Results: Third-Party Risk Management Practices in Higher Education," EDUCAUSE Review
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Nicole Muscanell, "EDUCAUSE QuickPoll FastFact: Should Cybersecurity and Privacy Functions Be Integrated?," EDUCAUSE Review
Attend Professional Learning Events
Continue the Conversation in Community Groups
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Cybersecurity and Privacy Awareness and Education Community Group
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Cybersecurity and Privacy Governance, Risk, and Compliance Community Group
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Cybersecurity and Privacy Technologies, Operations, and Practices Community Group
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Higher Education Chief Information Security Officers (Invite Only)
Bookmark EDUCAUSE Library Pages
Check Out What Your Peers are Doing
“WCU shifted operational security from the CISO to our applications and systems department so the CISO could create an information privacy program that meshes with the information security program. Now the 'CISPO' handles GRC for both security and privacy with oversight of operational security." —Joel McKenzie, Western Carolina University
Like this Solution Spotlight? Visit the 2025 EDUCAUSE Top 10 Solution Spotlights for more stories of how institutions are creating trust in higher education.
Don’t miss the next Showcase.
We hope you learned more about building trust through safeguarding privacy and securing institutional data in this Showcase. Next up, we’ll dive deeper into data in “The Data-Empowered Institution,” launching March 31.
Note
- Gartner, Predicts 2025: Privacy in the Age of AI and the Dawn of Quantum, Bart Willemsen, Bernard Woo, Joerg Fritsch, Whit Andrews, 14 January 2025
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
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