COVID 19 has bought a lot of changes to the world. Various industries have evolved from their regular work pattern and have come up with new regulations to handle the wild spread of the pandemic. One of the important sectors to undergo this major transition would be the educational institutions. Moving from conventional classroom programs to online training classes, schools, and universities across the globe have handled this transition well. Currently, we can see many students taking online training and assessment tests to continue their ongoing classes. Having a vulnerability management tool in educational institutions is essential.
With this latest transition, the number of endpoints used by educational organizations has increased exponentially. An increase is widely seen in the number of BYOD devices as the students and faculty members have started using their personal devices to participate in the online training programs. This means that educational institutions are more prone to cyber-attacks than earlier. In the past, studies say that educational institutions are among the poorly performing industries when it comes to safeguarding their IT security. All this implies that educational institutions cannot escape from the eyes of the attackers even in this crucial time. Thus, it is highly crucial for them to secure their new virtual environment to continue their classes smoothly. A patch management tool can patch any known critical vulnerabilities.
How can educational institutions secure their remote endpoint devices?
Educate the students and faculty members about cyber-attacks:
The first and foremost thing institutions must do is educate their professors, teachers, and students about the emerging wave of cyber-attacks that can happen in this scenario. Educate them on the ways through which attackers can intrude the system now and make them aware of the potential cybersecurity risks.
Ensure that the online training software used is secured:
We see a lot of news on how online meeting software like Zoom has faced various security breaches. Institutions have to take necessary steps to patch such software regularly and inform the faculty members to configure essential settings in the software to prevent the entry of unethical users in the online program. Refer to this blog article to get more details on how to secure your remote training software.
Monitor the endpoints and gain clear visibility:
The next step is to continuously monitor the endpoints and gain clear visibility on the actions occurring in the systems. Take control of the hardware and software used in the system and monitor them regularly to check any malicious entrants. Also, make sure to block these malicious unwanted applications and devices immediately to safeguard the network.
Patch applications regularly to prevent vulnerabilities:
The number of software applications used by the students and the faculty members has increased now. If these applications are not patched on time, this might lead to various critical vulnerabilities. Given that patching is an important mechanism followed to secure endpoints, institutions should ensure that they patch their endpoints regularly without any delay.
Assess for threats and vulnerabilities and respond to them:
Endpoints are often the prime target for cyber-attacks and are generally the entry point for attackers to invade the network. Run regular vulnerability scanning on the endpoints and remediate the detected vulnerabilities using patching techniques. Detect the deviations in the system settings which might lead to potential security threats and respond to them instantly. Identify any indications of attacks and compromise in the network and act upon them immediately.
Make systems abide by security compliance standards:
Security compliance benchmarks like HIPAA, PCI, and NIST come with various systems regulations which when incorporated keeps the systems secure. You can also choose to create your own compliance policy and incorporate it on your endpoints. This is one important step to make your endpoints abide by security standards to prevent your network from cyber-attacks.
But before following these steps, there’s a major challenge that Educational Institutions face before securing their endpoints.
It’s the lack of funding and a shortage of resources! This has eventually stopped them from creating a strong endpoint security defense mechanism, making them victims of many cyberattacks. Understandably, these institutions cannot afford multiple security solutions to safeguard their network. An affordable solution with salient security features is what these institutions need.
SecPod SanerNow, an affordable and reliable solution educational institutions need:
SecPod SanerNow is one such reliable solution that comes up with promising features to put an end to all these endpoint securities dismays. With SanerNow, one can easily perform operations like patching, vulnerability scanning, vulnerability assessment, vulnerability remediation, IT asset monitoring, enforcing security compliance, deploying software, managing endpoints, detecting and responding to threats, etc., all from a single unified cloud-based console.
There is no doubt that SecPod SanerNow will serve as a one-point cost-effective solution for educational institutions to prevent their network from security breaches.
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