Cyberattacks are a part of the everyday life of the sector.
There’s been countless examples of universities brought to a standstill by opportunistic attacks in recent years – and not all of them have hit the headlines.
The way universities work – the flow of information and ideas, the growth of mobile working, the wide variety of people that have legitimate access to provider systems, and the normalisation of a huge range of devices accessing networks, means that a heightened risk is baked into the sector’s very ethos. As repositories of valuable intellectual property, heavily networked with industry, and replete with all kinds of personal information makes universities tempting targets for the most sophisticated threats. Attackers have focused their efforts on universities that research defence technologies and innovation around new fuels and battery technology.
The huge scale of cybercrime globally goes far beyond the popular image of opportunistic amateur hackers showing off their skills – attacks are more likely to come from nation states, international organised crime networks, and “hacktivist” or cyber-terrorist groups. This presents a real challenge to establishments that are trying to carefully balance information sharing and openness versus the challenges of security, which by virtue tends towards limiting access.
