In a recent blog post from Barracuda Networks, Darius Goodall wrote that schools can take the following measures to help fortify their networks against #cyberattacks:
1 Prevent threats from entering your network with a next-generation firewall or email security gateway solution to filter out the bulk of the threats. This solution should scan incoming traffic using signature-matching, advanced heuristics, behavioral analysis, and sandboxing, and it should be able to correlate findings with real-time global threat intelligence.
2 Control and segment network access to minimize the spread of threats that do get in. Ensure that students can only spread malware within their own, limited domain. Also ensure that administrators, teachers, and guests have limited, specific access to online resources.
3 Clean house. Your infrastructure likely contains a large number of latent threats—email inboxes are full of malicious attachments and links just waiting to be clicked. Similarly, all applications, whether locally hosted or cloud-based, should be regularly scanned and patched for vulnerabilities.
4 Stay alert. Educational institutions suffer malware attacks in greater proportions than their peers in government, healthcare, energy, retail, and finance. Phishing and ransomware attacks are increasing in number each quarter—and they’re more and more sophisticated and malicious. User awareness and protecting your network perimeter across all threat vectors are crucial for combating the ever-changing threat landscape.
