Most discussions around cybersecurity understandably focus on information technology (IT). Assets like cloud services and data centers are typically what companies spend the most time and effort securing. Recently, though, operational technology (OT) has come under increasing scrutiny from leading security experts in both the private and public sectors. In June, for instance, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a fact sheet about ransomware attacks on OT.
The internet is an incredible tool for education. Unfortunately, not everyone uses it to better themselves or the world around them. There are plenty of opportunities to learn how to defraud, damage, and steal from organizations – so many in fact, that this open source of hacking knowledge is a new technology service industry in its own right: crime-as-a-service.
Higher education has increasingly been attracting the attention of cybercriminals. In March, the FBI released an advisory in response to a barrage of ransomware attacks on schools, and Inside Higher Education recently reported that colleges and universities are becoming favorite victims of bad actors. It's not just colleges themselves that are being targeted; their vendors and third parties are being attacked in the hopes of compromising an institution’s data.