Top 6 Ways to Protect Your Online Education Platform from Cyber Risks
Technology has become an inevitable part of our daily lives. Our modes of education have also successfully adapted to this change. Although online education has been around for quite some time now, with the COVID-19 pandemic impacting the entire world, online education has seen a considerable growth. From schools to colleges to extracurricular activities, everything is now embracing the online mode. As you see a wave in the number of online education platforms, the stats also showcase an expected rise in the eLearning market worldwide, to be worth $325 billion by 2025.
Digitalizing the education system has been a significant change for all, from teachers to students and the entire educational infrastructure. There are schools and institutions which were never equipped to run classes online and faced some notable challenges. It became difficult for both the teachers and the students initially. However, everyone has now adapted to this change, schools/colleges/institutions have evolved with online education platforms to provide all the study materials, take classes, maintain attendance, or stay in touch with each other.
Having said that, every innovation or adaptation comes with its own set of challenges and hindrances. Similarly, to take charge of the online learning platforms, you need to be confident about saving them from all possible cyber risks. It is vital to protect the technology with robust cybersecurity practices, as it involves plenty of data about the students, teachers, and the educational institution. The data needs to be encrypted, and the institution must chalk out a set of security rules to save it from breaching.
Why is cybersecurity a necessity for successful online education?
‘Precaution is better than cure!’
You must have heard that statement many times, and it is always conventional!
Several reasons could justify the need for you to save your online education platform from lurking cyber risks. Collecting some of these reasons below:
· Saving your organization’s money, in the long run, is a notable reason for ensuring security from cyber risks. You can end up spending a considerable part of your money if your education platform is affected by cyber-crimes. To avoid such experiences, it is a necessity to keep a check beforehand.
· Data is everything when using technology, and to avoid data breaches and losing sensitive data, it is important to ensure cyber safety.
· To better understand your organization, you should consider a cybersecurity assessment as it will give you an understanding of all the loopholes that your organization might have while conducting online education.
How to ensure cybersecurity for online education platforms?
Ensuring safety and security is essential, be it personal or professional. Here are some of the ways to ensure that you have a secure e-learning platform:
1. Ensuring safety with passwords:
Protect your online education platform with the help of strong password protection. Ensure that you enable security checks at all levels. The practice will not just save you from unofficial usage but also protect your data from being stolen. Restrict access of your platform to only direct users with User Identification and password. You can also control the number of logins through a particular ID and password.
2. Encrypting the entire data:
It is imperative to make sure that you encrypt all your platform’s data so that no one can infringe on it. You should ensure that data that is sent or received by various devices is encrypted accurately at all levels. Taking some extra measures to secure the data will help you in the long run. For instance, even if the data is stolen, it will not be in its readable format, rendering it entirely useless.
3. Regulating the access of data:
Teachers and students both use online education platforms, comprising crucial and confidential materials. To save such materials from being accessible to unwanted users, you can also opt to regulate the access of such data. Do not let everyone have access to any information and control what an individual can gain access to. There are cases where students try to break into confidential information but regulating the access would save you from losing any of it.
4. Managing regular checks:
An online education platform should undergo regular security checks to avoid any malpractices. Getting your platform checked at regular intervals will help you identify several issues before you lose any crucial data. Additionally, performing routine checks allow you to reboot your platform and save you from online bugs.
5. Investing in cybersecurity testing:
Cybersecurity testing services are now easily and readily available through many organizations. These services help you to determine any vulnerabilities and protect your platform from any cyber-attack. Investing in cybersecurity testing will save a good chunk of your money from cyber-attacks, as it will prevent your platform much earlier. Experts in cybersecurity testing would also assess your platform and identify vulnerabilities, so it will help you to take necessary precautions way ahead of any instances of cyber-attacks.
6. Educating the staff and students on Cybercrimes:
As we see a rise in digitalization, it should be compulsory for educational institutions to educate their staff and students on cybercrimes and make them conscious about such activities. There could be possibilities where students can get into cybercrimes and never realize the harm it can cause to their future or even become a target of cyber-attacks. Therefore, educating the students and staff on cybercrimes and security can be helpful for the platform.
Cybercrimes have been rising rapidly. As you see a shift towards a digital world, the rate of getting exposed to such practices is growing too. Cyber hackers are now attacking all the systems and networks with the speed of one attack, per 39 seconds. Doesn’t this make you take the right step towards ensuring that your online education platform is free from such risks? And not to forget, to provide a delightful experience to its users!
Hence, the lesson to take away is: Better safe than sorry.
Just like you need to safeguard the data of your online education platform from breaches, it is also crucial for you to consider performing a QA assessment test on the platform. To carry out the tests, always consider hiring an efficient QA team skilled in all the required training to perform the tests while ensuring your users’ a seamless experience.
