Education and research institutions are favorite targets for hackers and cybercriminals. The average institution saw more than 2,500 attacks every week in 2023—a 15% increase from 2022.
Deploying ransomware is a popular tactic. Nearly 80% of higher education institutions have been hit by ransomware attacks, three-quarters of which were successful. The damage can be extensive. Recovering from ransomware attacks costs colleges and universities about $1.42 million and often takes up to six months to mitigate fully. Selling student and financial data, research data, and proprietary information on the dark web is a lucrative business.
Yet, many academic institutions are dealing with older infrastructure and equipment that was not built for today’s cyber attackers. Tight budgets and IT labor shortages have made it more challenging than ever to stay on top of emerging threats, with IT teams often understaffed and overwhelmed.
More institutions are turning to managed cybersecurity services for education to provide relief for IT teams and protect valuable resources.
What Is a Higher Education Managed Cybersecurity Service?
Utilizing a higher education managed cyber security service is like having a dedicated team of cybersecurity professionals working for you around the clock, always on guard for suspicious activity.
By augmenting your in-house team, managed cybersecurity services work proactively to identify and mitigate threats, protecting your data and ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations. With managed cybersecurity services in education, you get peace of mind from knowing there is a hypervigilant watchdog guarding your networks and repelling would-be thieves.
Besides monitoring, typical services include:
- Multi-layered defense: Includes firewalls, intrusion detection systems, endpoint security, and threat intelligence
- Vulnerability management: Proactive scans and patching to ensure systems are up to date to avoid known security threats
- Cybersecurity optimization: Ongoing security assessment to identify potential gaps and areas for improvement to evolve your cyber maturity
- Training: Ensuring students, faculty, and staff are equipped with the knowledge they need to prevent human error
- Rapid response and mitigation: When breaches are detected, experts stand ready to help isolate and eliminate threats
If a cyberattack manages to penetrate your defenses, you want a team of specialists ready to jump into action to mitigate the damage. According to the 2023 Cost of a Data Breach Report from IBM, the average cost of a data breach in higher education is $3.65 million.
Benefits of Higher Education Managed Cybersecurity Service
To provide an idea of the scope of cyber threats, studies show that more than half a million new pieces of malware are detected every day—17 million every month. Check Point’s ThreatCloud AI tracks live cyber threats as they happen, including malware, phishing, and exploits. It shows the frightening number of attacks occurring in real time.
The best managed cybersecurity service providers will be collaborative partners, working with you to navigate the complexity of layered security and ever-evolving threats.
Partnering with the right provider provides:
- Better security and threat detection
- Around-the-clock monitoring
- Access to cybersecurity specialists
- Lower costs compared to SOC teams
Ultimately, working with a higher education managed cybersecurity service gives you confidence that you are putting in place the best possible security solutions to keep your data safe and private.
Cooperative Purchasing Agreements Cybersecurity
Whether you decide to use a managed security service provider (MSSP) or build your own internal security team, you can find what you need at E&I Cooperative Services
E&I Cooperative Services provides competitively solicited cooperative purchasing agreements to help reduce costs for higher education. E&I Cooperative Services is a member-owned, non-profit sourcing cooperative that leverages the bulk buying power of its 6,000 members to get best-in-class pricing for higher ed.
Because E&I Cooperative Services focuses exclusively on education, you can benefit from the expertise of procurement professionals who understand the intricacies of purchasing and can negotiate terms with suppliers that meet the unique needs of the education sector. This saves time and money while ensuring you get access to the goods and services you need at optimal pricing.
Membership is free, and there is no minimum purchase requirement nor an obligation to use the competitively sourced contracts.
Contact E&I Cooperative Services today to view available contracts and the full benefits of membership in the industry’s only education-focused purchasing cooperative.
Learn more about E&I Cooperative Services and view competitively solicited contracts today.