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The COVID-19 pandemic changed our world and the way businesses operate dramatically. It has also brought about a diametrical change in the way education is delivered and accessed. Education workers, students, and teachers around the world drastically altered the way they taught, learnt and worked. While this led to a massive increase in access to education for many and a wider student pool, it also created a ripe and wider attack surface for cyber criminals.

According to a cybersecurity survey at CustomWritings professional essay services, there has been an astronomical rise in cyber-attacks on educational institutions. Cybersecurity attacks on higher education institutions are now an expected trend, instead of a speculative possibility.

Impact
Cybersecurity attacks on educational institutions are not just an operational or financial issue. They compromise student data and harm the overall integrity and reputation of institutions that have been built painstakingly over the years.

Systems are brought down to their knees, information is lost, anxiety and stress levels of staff and students skyrocket. Universities spend millions trying to recover from cyberattacks, and the recovery itself could take months as they try to first find the compromise before attempting to fix it.

Cybersecurity consultancies are often brought in to advise universities on how to defend against these cyberattacks, but with the constant evolution of these attacks, there has been no respite for universities and schools.

Why Are Universities Being Targeted?
Of course, major industries and companies are the most popular victims of cyberattacks. But higher education institutions have become a huge target because of the large amounts of personal data, medical records, and advanced project research papers they store in their system databases.

We will take a more in-depth look at some key reasons why universities are being avidly targeted by cybercriminals.

Universities, unlike their industrial counterparts, adopt a more open and transparent take on their infrastructure. These colleges and universities make sure that their sites can be connected to easily and without trouble by students and parents. This has unknowingly thrown the door wide open to cybercriminals.
Many leading global universities were early adopters of digital tools and internet access. Their systems hold valuable troves of knowledge and research materials that go way back. This makes them attractive targets for data theft. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that, unlike corporate networks, educational networks aren’t always the most advanced or up-to-date. Therefore, they don’t end up being a good match against the advanced and highly sophisticated tools of the modern cyber-criminal.
Another reason why universities fall prey to cyber attacks is the limited talent in their cybersecurity or IT departments. Most technology graduates are lured away by handsome remuneration packages offered by companies like Apple and Microsoft. Thus, educational institutions, whose pockets aren’t always as deep as the corporate bigwigs’, aren’t necessarily able to attract the best talent who can keep their cybersecurity infrastructure robust and relevant all the time.