Cybersecurity Turned Inside Out

Published:: Monday, June 7, 2021

Just as work and learning moved from place-based to remote over the past year, so too did cybersecurity threats to higher education institutions. As the work of higher education spread beyond the campus, our cybersecurity strategies were turned inside out. To prevent, detect, and respond to the threats all around us, we must move from guarding the perimeter to defending our borderless networks with new technologies, strategies, and collaborations.

Do You Know Where Your Endpoints Are?

EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Information Security edition

All breaches have a starting point, and that point tends to be the laptops, tablets, desktops, and smartphones—also known as "endpoints"—used by our faculty, staff, and students. As members of the campus community moved to working and learning from homes, parking lots, and other off-campus locations, the challenges of protecting these devices and monitoring their activities became paramount. The 2021 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Information Security Edition named endpoint detection and response (EDR) as one of the top information security technologies and practices in both impact on overall institutional information security and cost.

See the Horizon Report

We Can Control the Cloudy Weather

Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT)

Over the past year, higher education institutions have accelerated the move of operational needs and services to cloud and third-party vendors, increasing the need for vendor management and raising questions about security requirements. If done effectively, vendor management can minimize the risks. Tools can help, such as the recently updated Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT)—developed for the community, by the community—which provides a framework to measure vendor risk.

See the HECVAT

We Are All in This Together

Community Support

With new cybersecurity threats all around us, we can't address them on our own. We have to defend our institutions collectively. From collaborations like OmniSoc and REN-ISAC to managed security service providers (MSSPs) and community discussions, we must rely on shared expertise to guard against increasingly sophisticated and coordinated attackers.

View Community Conversations: The Increasing Relevance of the CISO