Email Security For Education

As cyber attacks becoming increasingly frequent and more sophisticated in nature, education institutions need to make protecting their staff and students from cyber attacks a priority.
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Budget constraints and the need to prioritize students and teaching when allocating spending means that many education institutions do not have sufficient security tools in place to protect them against email threats, which leave them vulnerable and their networks easy to penetrate – which cyber attackers love.
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It is also common for both students and staff to have little knowledge or understanding of what security threats they may be facing, what those threats may look like and how best to protect themselves. Without this knowledge cybercriminals are in a much better position to exploit human error to launch their attack.

Cyber attacks on schools, colleges, and universities have increased sharply. The education sector has become a very attractive target for cyber criminals due to the large volume of sensitive information it collates, including personally identifiable private information, alumni donations, emails, technical resources like documents and standards, and potentially high value or sensitive research and intellectual property. If stolen or compromised, this data could fetch a hefty ransom due to the significant and far-reaching damage a breach could cause.

IT teams in education may also be struggling to ensure compliance with the continually growing number of regulatory frameworks. Existing regulations continue to evolve, and new requirements are always on the horizon, with the repercussions for mishandling email compliance being severe.

The most valuable barrier that education institutions can place between themselves and cyber criminals is a strong email security system, which can be delivered as a cloud service, on-premises or as part of a hybrid deployment model. Email gateways work like a firewall, utilizing threat protection technologies such as attachment sandboxing and URL link scanning to put distance between users and the incessant spam and ransomware being delivered to them.

With a good email gateway in place, organizations have the power to blacklist and whitelist certain domains, helping to prevent known harmful accounts from having access to staff and students and targeting them. With an email gateway users also benefit from outbound email protection, which prevents accounts from sending spam or phishing attacks out.
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However, with research suggesting that 90% of security breaches involve some form of human error, it is good practice to also consider an educational approach, instead of relying solely on the protection of an email security solution. People are your first line of defense against cyber attackers, so leaving them without any knowledge to arm themselves is leaving them susceptible to tricks and manipulation. Phishing simulation is a great tool to educate the staff at an education institution on cybersecurity best practices.