Digital attacks on educational institutions are quite common and tend to intensify during certain periods of time, such as school and higher education examination periods.
This particular phenomenon is not rare and has been highlighted repeatedly in our reports. The problem has been particularly aggravated in recent years, on the one hand due to the digitization of many educational processes due to the coronavirus pandemic, and on the other hand because the means of conducting attacks have become cheaper and easier to use, even for attackers with low technical skills. In general, such attacks may be associated with hooliganism, hacktivism (politically motivated digital activism) or used as a tool of commercial competition,” says Alexander Gutnikov, security expert at Kaspersky.
What steps can be taken to prevent similar attacks in the future? Educational organizations, while having special characteristics, are not much different from other private or public organizations when it comes to measures to prevent DDoS attacks.
Therefore, they must follow the same methods of dealing with these attacks: conducting audits to identify weak points in the network infrastructure and implementing a strong defense system. Most educational organizations typically lack professional expertise in information security and rarely have the ability to establish and maintain such protection independently.
Therefore, the most reliable advice for them is to seek help from professionals. Organizations can prepare for a DDoS attack in advance. Even if they are not ready to build a comprehensive defense system, taking preventive measures can help minimize the damage. Protecting during an attack may be common practice for cybersecurity companies, but unprotected organizations cannot respond accordingly. Experience shows that most obstacles are not usually related to technical issues but to issues related to the processes and organization of the organization in question. For the best advance protection against an attack, we urge you to carefully plan and establish a specific sequence of moves. The following points can help you significantly:
Identify who is responsible for the network infrastructure and its location. Determine who is responsible for making changes and the necessary administrative approvals. You know your Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Finally, the most important thing is to have a reliable security solution provider that you can turn to should the need arise.
By coming to an agreement in advance with all parties involved, the potential impact of attacks can be greatly reduced. It is important to prioritize the development of a comprehensive process, as 20% of the effort is what guarantees 80% of the success.
0 Comments