Education Gets an 'F' for Cybersecurity

A new report evaluating cybersecurity for 17 US industries puts the education sector in last place, sparking concern as businesses in the space collect and store more students' data.

Researchers at SecurityScorecard analyzed 2,393 education-focused organizations with a footprint of 100-plus IP addresses between April and October. They found three key areas of poor performance: application security, patching cadence, and network security. It's driving concern as educational institutions house not only student data, but intellectual property.

Student records include names, addresses, Social Security numbers, test scores, behavioral assessments, personal health data, and more information that's valuable to cybercriminals. In addition, research universities are often targeted for sensitive project data.

Organizations store all of this information on-premises and in the cloud, where it's often accessible to third parties. "Securing these networks and protecting this information is essential to protect the future of innovation and privacy," says Sam Kassoumeh, COO and co-founder of SecurityScorecard, in a release on the news.

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