Industry
Security for Education
Universities, schools, and ed-tech platforms run open networks for tens of thousands of users, hold decades of student records, and rarely have the security headcount to match.
AVG COST OF A DATA BREACH IN EDUCATION (IBM 2024)
MOST MALWARE-TARGETED SECTOR GLOBALLY IN MICROSOFT'S THREAT TELEMETRY
Securing education means protecting student privacy and exam integrity without walling off the openness that teaching and research depend on. It requires identity-first controls for a churning user base, segmentation between administrative, academic, and research networks, and backups that make ransomware a nuisance rather than a crisis.
Why it matters
Open by Design, Targeted by Default
Campuses are built for access, not containment: BYOD everywhere, research data shared across institutions, legacy student information systems, and a user base that turns over every year. Ransomware crews and credential-phishing campaigns treat that as an easy target, and exam-season downtime is leverage.
- 01
Ransomware's Soft Target
Roughly two-thirds of lower-education organisations reported a ransomware attack in the last year, among the highest rates of any sector, with recovery often taking weeks.
- 02
Student and Research Data at Stake
Admissions records, fee payment details, health data, and funded research IP sit in the same loosely-segmented network, and a single phished credential exposes all of it.
- 03
Thin Security Teams
Most institutions run security as a part-time role inside IT, so detection, patching, and incident response lag well behind the attack tempo.
Regulatory landscape, India
Compliance built for Indian education
Every engagement is aligned to the regulations that actually apply to your sector in India, so your security programme satisfies auditors and regulators, not just a checklist.
- 01
DPDP Act, 2023
Student and parent personal data, including data of minors, falls under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, with heightened consent requirements for children's data.
- 02
CERT-In Directions (2022)
Educational institutions and their IT providers must report incidents within 6 hours and retain logs for 180 days.
- 03
UGC & AICTE Guidelines
Regulator advisories on cyber hygiene, data protection, and secure online examination for higher-education institutions.
- 04
NEP 2020 Digital Infrastructure
Digital-first education mandates raise the bar on securing LMS, online assessment, and student data platforms.
How we help
Three services that matter most
Of our 46 services, these are the ones we would recommend a education team start with.
- 01
Identity & Zero Trust Implementation
MFA, conditional access, and role-based access for students, faculty, and staff, with automated onboarding and offboarding every term.
- 02
Email Security
Stop the phishing and fee-scam campaigns that target students and parents, and protect faculty mailboxes that hold research and grading data.
- 03
Backup & Disaster Recovery
Immutable backups and tested restore procedures for student information systems and LMS platforms, so exams and admissions don't stall.
Solutions
Platforms we deploy for education
Partner technology and outcome-based solutions we implement and run for education teams, matched to the threats above.
- 01
Microsoft Defender for Office 365
Phishing, malware, and account-takeover protection for the Microsoft 365 and Teams estate most institutions already run on.
- 02
Cisco Umbrella
DNS-layer protection across campus Wi-Fi and student devices, blocking malware and phishing domains before a connection is made.
- 03
Acronis Microsoft 365 Backup
Independent backup for mailboxes, OneDrive, and SharePoint so accidental deletion or ransomware never erases a semester's work.
FAQ
Common questions
01Why is education such a common ransomware target?
Campus networks are open by design, budgets are tight, and downtime during admissions or exams creates pressure to pay. Attackers know all three.
02Do you work with schools as well as universities?
Yes. We scale engagements from single-campus K-12 groups to multi-campus universities and ed-tech platforms.
03What Indian regulations apply to student data?
The DPDP Act, 2023 governs student and parent data, with stricter consent rules for minors, and CERT-In's 6-hour incident reporting applies to institutions and their IT vendors.
04Can you secure online examinations?
Yes. We test assessment platforms for tampering and impersonation risks and harden the identity and infrastructure that exams run on.
05How do you handle BYOD and student devices?
With identity-first controls, DNS-layer filtering, and network segmentation, so an infected personal device can't reach administrative or research systems.
Start an engagement
Secure what’s next.
Speak with the engineering team to define scope, walk through the methodology, and decide whether Faltrox is the right team to test and run your environment.
Contact us