Research Says Nation's Top Colleges and Universities are at High Risk for Security Breaches
A new reveals that as a sector, the nation's top schools are at even greater risk for security breaches than retail and healthcare.
The report, "Powerhouses and Benchwarmers: Assessing Cyber Security Performance, said: "From social security and credit card numbers to health records and intellectual property produced by research departments, colleges and universities house a vast amount of sensitive data. While not surprising given the unique challenges universities face securing open campus networks, it's concerning to see that they are rating so far below other industries that we've seen plagued by recent security problems," said Stephen Boyer, co-founder and CTO of BitSight. "But, there are schools that perform well above the aggregate ratings for other industries, and the fact that the highly rated schools that we looked at all employ a CISO or director of information security, demonstrates that a top-down commitment to security and risk is crucial. These schools should serve as an example for other colleges to benchmark their performance against."