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Digital Transformation has occurred across all industries – including education . Though the advantages of this are numerous , it has also posed new challenges around data security . Irfahn Khimji , Chief Systems Engineer at Tripwire , tells us what these new challenges are and provides advice for teams with limited resources on how they can create a simple but effective data security strategy .

How has increased digitalisation across many educational institutions created new data security challenges ?

The education system has been fairly static for many generations . Students go to a classroom of sorts and a teacher teaches them . The technology may have gotten better , going from the chalk board to the white board , to a smart board , but the in-person aspect never changed . Circumstances have caused an immediate Digital Transformation of the classroom in which we see similar challenges to other industries that are going through Digital Transformations .

First , the primary goal of the digitalisation is to get the students learning online as quickly as possible . Anything that slows down this primary goal gets overlooked . Security , rightly or wrongly , often gets overlooked as it takes additional time to think about and implement . Even if there are some base minimums to maintain compliance with data protection regulations , these are often quickly added or completely overlooked so that the primary goal is attained .

Second , there were significant unplanned costs associated with digitising education . New equipment , software and training were all required without any planning or notice . Unfortunately , when dollars are scarce and cuts need to be made , security is one of the first things to be skipped .

Third , data security , if done correctly , is transparent to the user . If the users do end up seeing the security controls , it is because it blocked them from doing something . If the user is blocked from doing what they need to do , they will try to find a work around or bypass to skip the security control . When going through the sometimes frustrating task of learning a new delivery method , security controls often get dismissed .

How is this further aggravated by the increase in personal data now processed and used in light of the pandemic ?

It ’ s one thing to deliver educational material over a new digital medium , it ’ s another thing altogether to process personal and private information of students and teachers digitally .

IF THE USER IS BLOCKED FROM DOING WHAT THEY NEED TO DO , THEY WILL TRY TO FIND A WORK AROUND OR BYPASS TO SKIP THE SECURITY CONTROL .