Schools, Unis Must Secure Online Platforms & Apps

VASCO Data Security is urging schools, colleges and universities as well as their students to be more careful and aware of security issues when using online platforms for educational purposes. To prevent identity and data theft, online applications used by schools and universities should be sufficiently protected.

It has become common for universities to have an online interactive platform to distribute course documents, announce colleges and exchange information on forums. Even secondary schools often have such a platform, allowing teachers to post didactic material and even take online tests.

These kind of online applications are designed to facilitate the communication between (university) teachers and students. But online platforms used by educational institutions are also a great administrative tool. They contain personal data of students and teachers, allowing the administrative services to process quickly information such as address changes.

More from Biztech

Future Group - Reliance Retail Deal approved by CCI RBI ban on cryptocurrencies takes effect; prohibition could force investors to tap the black market

It is obvious that this kind of applications, containing information on people’s identities, addresses and personal data, should be sufficiently protected against possible online attacks. But in reality, many platforms are only secured with a weak static password. An effective countermeasure against hackers is strong two-factor authentication. VASCO’s authentication solutions allow replacing static passwords with secure dynamic ones. Dynamic passwords or one-time passwords minimise the risk of password theft, as they are valid for a limited amount of time and can be used only once. Strong authentication thus ensures that only authorised users have access to the application, and at the same time remains a very user-friendly solution: a dynamic password is easily generated at the push of a button of a DIGIPASS.

“VASCO has experience in providing effective and user-friendly authentication solutions to secure online applications in the educational sector. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of schools and universities who offer great online platforms with a lot of functionalities, secured only by a weak static password. Considering the possible abuse of personal data displayed in these applications, we recommend to be careful when using online educational platforms and make sure they are secured in an effective way. Strong authentication is the best way to make sure that only authorised users can access the online applications. This way, students, teachers and other employees can enjoy all the benefits of these interactive platforms without having to worry about security issues”, says Jan Valcke, President and COO, VASCO Data Security.