Guide

Stay a step ahead of cybersecurity threats in higher education

Colleges and universities manage a vast array of digital assets — reports, photos, videos, recordings, curricula, brochures, research data and methodologies — as well as a huge amount of highly valuable personal data. Schools must offer students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and the broader community easy access to relevant information while ensuring only authorized access to sensitive data.

Although higher education leaders rank safeguarding data as a top priority,¹ cybersecurity and privacy professionals in higher education say that staffing issues have had a negative impact on those services at their institutions.² Nearly 40% of IT leaders in education say their organizations lack sufficient understanding of cybersecurity staffing needs.³ This, combined with tight budgets and the escalating volume and complexity of the threats, is making it difficult for institutions to keep up.

90% of cybersecurity professionals identify one or more

skills gaps on their cybersecurity teams.⁴

Meanwhile, the attack surface has never been larger. Network-connected mobile devices, cloud applications, Internet of Things (IoT) technology, online learning platforms and smart classroom tools are all integral to higher education communication. But using them moves schools beyond the security of their private networks, creating new security gaps for attackers to exploit. A demand for anywhere network access and the challenges of blending online and offline learning also create security issues. Collaborative information sharing in higher education research, which fuels innovation, represents another attack vector IT teams must protect.

Attackers are drawn to the higher education sector because of the huge amount of personally identifiable information (PII) available on students, faculty and others. These attackers take advantage of schools’ vulnerabilities by using increasingly sophisticated technologies and evolving their approaches. Ransomware threats represent one common tactic; 6.7 million individual records at U.S. educational institutions were impacted by such attacks between 2018 and 2024.⁵

6.7M records affected in ransomware attacks on U.S. educational

institutions between 2018 and 2024.⁶

Other threats faced by colleges and universities include infostealer malware, phishing exploits and double‐extortion schemes. The rise of AI is ushering in new risks as well, even as the technology enables innovative defensive capabilities. Responding to the growing security threat, Moody’s Ratings increased the education sector’s cyber risk rating from “moderate” to “high” in 2024.⁷

The ongoing digital collection and aggregation of student and staff data is extremely attractive to cybercriminals — and potentially devastating to schools. The average daily cost of downtime for a ransomware attack on a U.S. educational institution now tops $550,000,⁸while the average cost of a data breach in the education industry reached $3.8 million in 2025.⁹

To change their risk profile, colleges and universities need to adopt new network security practices.

Tracking evolving threats

The profile of threats is concerning. Attacks can lead to expensive breaches that damage reputations and compromise large amounts of sensitive data, while others shut down systems and disrupt daily operations. But you can protect your institution from attacks that come from a wide range of attack vectors. Understanding current and emerging types of threats can help you put the right protection in place.

Social engineering

This technique is used by cybercriminals to exploit human psychology and trick people into revealing confidential information or performing actions that compromise security. Phishing is one common method, with attackers often impersonating legitimate entities to steal sensitive data or plant malware through malicious files or downloads. Among higher education institutions, 100% express having experienced phishing attempts.¹⁰ In one 30-day period, 4,361 phishing threats were reported.¹¹

AI-powered cyberthreats

These emerging methods leverage AI to create more convincing and automated attacks, making them harder to detect and potentially more effective. One example includes using AI to develop deepfakes, which are realistic fake videos, audio or images employed to trick individuals into granting access to systems or data. AI can also help generate highly personalized phishing emails, power chatbot phishing efforts and attack AI systems by corrupting training data or finding vulnerabilities in the models. On average, 16% of data breaches involve attackers using AI, most often for AI-generated phishing (37%) and deepfake impersonation attacks (35%).¹²

Ransomware and other malware

Malware is broadly defined as any malicious software designed to harm or exploit computer systems. Ransomware is a type of malware attackers use to restrict access to a computer system or files and then demand payment for their release. In 2024, the average ransom demand in the education industry was $847,000.¹³ Downloaders are another common malware type, distributed through malicious or compromised websites, typically via fake software updates. New malware variations appear each year, underscoring the need for organizations to remain up to date and vigilant.

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks

These brute-force attacks are throwing more traffic at networks than ever before, combining volumetric, session-exhaustion and application-layer attack vectors. In session-exhaustion attacks, the firewall is essentially turned inside out, becoming a tool for attackers instead of a network defense. Application-level attacks target the code that runs the website or application. Colleges and universities are experiencing a surge in DDoS attacks, with 40% of higher education institutions affected.¹⁴ Web DDoS attacks escalated significantly in 2024, increasing almost 550% from the previous year.¹⁵

Data breaches

The unauthorized access, disclosure or loss of sensitive, confidential or protected information continues to be a risk faced by organizations large and small across industries. The theft can involve PII, such as Social Security numbers (SSNs), bank account details and health information, as well as corporate data like customer records and financial information. In some cases, attackers prefer to corrupt rather than steal from institutional databases: deleting database tables, changing records or erasing entire databases. Post-secondary institutions account for 60% of breaches and 83% of affected records in the education sector.¹⁶

Top negative consequences resulting from cyber incidents and breaches:¹⁷

Loss of confidence in tech integrity
Operational disruption
Reputational loss
Negative talent recruitment and retention impact
Loss of revenue

How cyberattacks can be prevented

Breaking down the details of higher education data breaches helps paint a clear picture of the evolving threat. Read these hypothetical examples and see how institutions might have thwarted an attack.

Large state university loses access to school’s portal

Type of attack: DDoS

What was lost: A series of massive DDoS Mirai botnet attacks over the span of a few years flooded the university’s network with internet traffic. A central server that maintained a portal used by students and faculty was taken offline for several consecutive periods.

What might have mitigated or thwarted the attack: Careful monitoring of internet traffic could have detected the attacks. During the attacks, a DDoS mitigation solution could have resulted in blocking only certain IP addresses, allowing clean traffic to pass and productivity to be maintained or restored.

Medium-sized public university experiences theft of student records

Type of attack: Phishing

What was lost: When a university employee engaged with an email phishing scam, over 600 student records and family records containing PII were exposed.

What might have mitigated or thwarted the attack: Use of a next-generation firewall could have helped block the attack and warned university security personnel to act sooner. Intrusion detection services, in concert with strong user authentication, could have protected critical data.

Small private university’s email is compromised

Type of attack: Data breach

What was lost: When an unauthorized person used credentials of current employees to access their accounts, employee PII — including SSNs, addresses, phone numbers, names of family members and salary information — stored on the university network was exposed.

What might have mitigated or thwarted the attack: An extra layer of protection from multi-factor authentication (MFA) could have prevented bad actors from accessing the hacked accounts. A managed firewall service could have blocked and protected confidential information from those not authorized to access the network.

Finding the right protection

Continuously keeping ahead of cybersecurity threats to your network requires comprehensive and coordinated coverage. A unified security approach integrated with your internet and network connectivity can help you eliminate vulnerabilities and expedite issue resolution. The approach should include firewalls, unified threat management (UTM) and DDoS protection. The support of a network services provider is also vital, including for cloud-based security services such as secure web gateways, cloud access security brokers, identity management and zero trust network access.

When it’s time to evaluate a provider and its services, ask the following questions to help you find the best protection possible:

How can you protect us from malware, phishing and other common cyberattacks?
How do you identify and mitigate network threats? Can you scan our network for attacks and drain suspicious traffic?
What protection do you provide against volumetric DDoS attacks?
Do you have a means for enabling us to continue to work productively on unaffected parts of the network after a DDoS attack?
Do you provide UTM? What protection does that provide?
Can your firewall protect traffic between our various sites as well?
Is a next-generation firewall part of what you offer? What does it provide?
Do you have an integrated solution that includes firewall, UTM and internet service to simplify protection?
Does your solution provide complete visibility across network components to make potential vulnerabilities easier to identify?
Can you help implement a zero-trust network architecture with MFA, access management and cloud security for staff working on-site and remotely?
How are you prepared to support our organization as our network needs change and cyberthreats evolve?
How can you help offload day-to-day administration work from our IT team during and after implementation?
What types of teams and experts will we have access to for support? Are they available 24/7?
How will you ensure all of our WiFi sites are protected?

Comprehensive coverage and support

Widespread, coordinated network protection coverage can keep you one step ahead of evolving cyberthreats in higher education. You can balance the needs for complexity in coverage and simplicity in operation by choosing managed security services. With the right partner, you’re supported from design through implementation and provided with ongoing support. See how Spectrum Business®, a Charter Communications brand, is uniquely qualified to protect your institution’s network.

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