How can research institutes and universities tackle the threats of cybercrime and espionage?
Universities and researchers face pressure when it comes to security, although pressures come from different quarters.
In the second part of our report on looking at cybersecurity in universities and research, we hear how ransomware has changed the game for the sector – and how state sponsored actors continue to probe defences, looking for valuable intellectual property.
Last year, nation state hackers tried to force their way into university research networks to obtain information about Covid-19 vaccines. At the same time university officials, like those in other large organisations, had to deal with a rapid move to home working.
But those were not the only challenges facing the sector. Universities have large, distributed networks that are built for sharing, not for secrecy. And cybersecurity risks continue to grow.
Our guests in this episode are Allie Mellen, an analyst covering security and risk, at Forrester, and previously an academic researcher at MIT, and Mark Wantling, the CIO at Salford University.
We asked them both for their views on the challenges facing universities and research, and how the sector can work with governments and other bodies to improve cyber defences.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
