How the 3DEXPERIENCE platform offers advanced cybersecurity measures for educational institutions.
Each year the education sector experiences cyber attacks from all angles. Though this is not a new problem, it has yet to be properly addressed. According to a 2022 report by the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Education has missed its mark again on preparing for and preventing cyber attacks by failing to recognize their severity.
Cyber attacks in the K-12 education sector remain in escalation mode, and the LA School District attack that happened in 2022 is a testament to this reality. Such a high-profile data breach costs school districts days to weeks in lost time and resources, not to mention the scare and uncertainty it inflicts upon staff, students, and parents.
The Dept. of Education needs to catch up with other federal agencies in responding to cyber threats. Per David Hinchman, the director of the GAO’s information technology and cybersecurity team, there is a lack of coordination between K-12 institutions and the fed.
This is a significant issue that creates a disconnect, resulting in school districts suffering from a lack of guidance on cyber security. And as a result of it all, the education sector is vulnerable to cyber attacks, such as phishing, ransomware, and data breaches.
So what is a solution to all the poor communication and information sharing? Well, the GAO calls on the Department of Education to create a “government coordinating council” to bridge the gap between the feds and school districts and provide a formal way to measure that partnership’s success (or lack thereof).
However, parents deserve to be in the know, too. After all, their child is part of the equation. Communicating cybersecurity safety measures to parents offers peace of mind that something is being done to keep their child’s information safe. And it educates parents on cybersecurity strategies as well.
Educational institutions should continue to invest their own resources in preventative measures, placing cybersecurity as a high priority to mitigate information threats. While the federal government works on developing a solution to this glaring gap, schools can start boosting cybersecurity from the inside out by investing in high-quality online learning tools that come with their own deep layers of protection.
3DEXPERIENCE: Better School Cybersecurity at a Platform Level
3DEXPERIENCE is a digital education platform that allows STEM educators to create a custom learning environment for their classrooms. It runs on the cloud, so you and your students can access your data from anywhere. But more importantly, it is secured by OWASP– the open web application security project.
This includes in-house training for developers and quality groups with particular emphasis on relevant OWASP topics and includes countermeasures against other vulnerabilities. Taking security even further, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform is released on the cloud after an external test is performed against the entire platform to ensure known vulnerabilities from the OWASP Top 10 are covered and secured in the code.
Note that specific fixes are not documented externally to limit information to would-be hackers while providing the guidance necessary to use the platform. We invite you to learn more about 3DEXPERIENCE for education and how you can better prevent data breaches at your school.
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