Even before 2020, connectivity played an important role in university life. In recent years, however, connectivity shifted from a mere convenience to a lifeline for students and universities. As these institutions built and expanded online remote access for their students, many from scratch, their IT departments were forced to shift their focus from on-campus networking to supporting a distributed global network to meet the new normal of education.
Although in-person teaching has now seen a welcome return, the wealth of online learning resources available, both on internal and external networks, are an invaluable asset to both teachers and students. Meanwhile, online retail, banking, health services, gaming, media, and more are mainstays of student life.
Now, the global networks established to support day-to-day teaching have encountered another obstacle, as the expanded attack surface attracts growing cybercrime. Over the last two years, the NCSC has released multiple warnings about the rise of ransomware attacks on higher education, with experts calculating that the average cost of a cyber attack on the UK educational sector is £620,000. Not only do these institutions hold large amounts of PII, but they are frequently home to sensitive research and development data, making them highly valuable targets.
The Continued Needs of the New University
The pandemic was a wakeup call for IT departments in universities: improvisation and a patchwork of legacy infrastructure and security could no longer suffice. Higher education institutions needed a considered plan for moving to a more resilient, on-demand model.
Higher education faces one of t ..
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