Tackling cyberattacks
Cyberattacks are emerging as the new threats to the present set up especially in the developing countries. The cyberattacks have been often misused by anti-national and other such elements to destabilise the country that becomes the target of such attacks.
Therefore, tackling and preventing cyberattacks requires a multi-faceted approach that involves individuals, organizations, and governments working together.
Notably, in India cyberattacks have been directed targeting many sectors which include defence, finance and public delivery systems. However, off late Indian educational institutions have been on the fore front of these attacks as the sector suffered more than two lakh cyberattacks and nearly four lakh data breaches in just nine months.
A pilot study titled “Exploring Cyber Threats and Digital Risks to Indian Educational Institutions”, was conducted under CyberPeace Foundation’s flagship e-Kawach initiative in collaboration with DELNET, Resecurity and Autobot Infosec.
The study released with the launch of the “Cyber First Responder” initiative, aimed at equipping students, faculty, librarians and staff with skills to counter cyber threats, deepfakes and misuse of artificial intelligence found more than 8,000 unique usernames and 54,000 unique passwords being used in brute-force attacks. Commonly targeted usernames included “root” and “admin”, while weak passwords, such as “123456” and “password”, were frequently attempted.
The nine-month study, conducted between July 2023 and April 2024 revealed that Indian educational institutions are likely five times more vulnerable to data breaches than counterparts with stronger cyber practices.
While it may seem of least concern that educational institutions are being targeted by cyberattacks, the move behind such attacks is aimed at breaches that could lead to impersonation of faculty, phishing attacks, deepfake content, theft of sensitive research data and even leakage of exam papers.
These motives are enough for the cyber attackers to destroy years of toil that have gone in establishing and carrying out research in various fields besides, some sensitive information that can even compromise security of the nation.
Since keeping the educational institutions’ safe is a priority the authorities need to stress on collaboration with other organizations and government agencies to share threat intelligence and best practices to counter cyberattacks.
There is also a need to engage with cybersecurity communities and forums to stay informed about emerging threats and solutions and establish and follow cybersecurity standards and guidelines to ensure consistency and effectiveness.
