Cybersecurity in Education - What Teachers, Parents, and Students Should Know

Cybersecurity and education are two separate paths that need to cross if we want a secure future for us. Cybersecurity is an issue that won’t disappear anytime soon, so we will have to find ways to cope with it. Spreading awareness regarding cybersecurity cannot undo the destruction caused by cyberattacks, but we can control it by some margin.

There is another reason for cybersecurity: Schools and universities have fallen victim to a lot of cyberattacks in the near past. It is not limited to only the enterprise world anymore, as educational institutes are also on the radar of cybercriminals. They hack into the system of educational organizations and steal their data for ransom money. For example, the cyberattack on University College London in which hackers intruded into the students' management system hacked it for ransom money. There are things that a teacher, a student and a parent should be aware of when it comes to cybersecurity.

What a Teacher Should Know About Cybersecurity?

A teacher shares almost the same responsibilities for a child as parents. Children nowadays have access to digital stuff like tabs, mobile phones, computers and other internet-connected devices. They can create the entry point for a hacker to get into their home or institute network. You, as a teacher, have a bigger responsibility to bring awareness to them about the security risks they can cause. One lesson would be how to surf the internet for educational purposes and with minimal security risk. 

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As a teacher, you should also be aware of the security risks and try to be a practical example for your students. As we know, students learn more from actions than words. You should introduce students to the safe browser options and the use of proper passwords to protect the information. It is always recommended for a teacher to have a cybersecurity certification or at least some training about it.

What Parents Should Know About Cybersecurity?

It is a rewarding yet stressful experience being a parent. Because right now, in today's world, you have to keep your children safe from physical dangers and also from dangers online.

Being a parent, it is your responsibility to know what your children are doing, though keeping in mind their privacy in some of the matters. Children today have access to the internet and many devices, so we as parents need to guide them about the security risks they can face online. We have to make sure that their devices are well protected with antiviruses that are up to date. Yet, they need counseling about it, as they do not know what can cause what. There is stuff like cyberbullying and similar threats on social media that they need to know before they experience anything like that.

What Students Should Know About Cybersecurity?

As we know, a mistake can be deadly for a network, and this mistake is often made by a human. An employee or a student—these two are the prime suspects of this mistake. Students are the ones who are the most exposed to these cyber threats, as there is internet integrated with education now.

They should be given proper education on how to use the internet safely, such as how to protect their data with passwords that are hard to crack and never share them with anyone. They should also be given proper guidance about different types of attacks and how to recognize them and fight against them. There are common mistakes made when it comes to cybersecurity, so let's look at them.

Common Security Mistakes

On the educational level, we have seen an increase in cyberattacks, and there are some reasons for that. So, let's see where we are going wrong on this.

• Weak Security Controls

We know what the condition of educational institutes is right now. We use technology to study, and all of these technologies hold some data, as their work is based on data, but institutes do not have that much control over the security of that data. It is a reason for more data violations in educational organizations.

• Limited IT Staff

In educational organizations, there is always a budget issue, so they keep the IT staff limited. And with limited staff, handling a big network is a very tough task.

• Human Error

Human errors is a deadly mistake for a network in any organization, be it an enterprise or an educational institute. We can see human mistakes everywhere in a university, like IT personnel leaving their laptops open and unprotected. It seems like nothing, but it can cause havoc if someone steals the network secrets.

Cybersecurity in the educational environment is as valuable as it is in the enterprise environment. There are shared responsibilities for teachers, students and parents if we want to stay safe from these threats.