College Students: A Prime Target for Hacking

As college students across the country make their way to campuses armed with textbooks, smartphones, and computers —  the one thing they’re likely missing is the right set of tools to prevent hacking attacks. The anti-hacking feature can make web browsing more secure for all college students, regardless of their online security knowledge. If you’re a college student download this handy tool now or if you’re a parent, encourage your child to protect themselves:

To hackers, students are easy targets ripe for the picking, uneducated about online security with often near-perfect credit scores. With access to campus-wide networks of emails and other sensitive information, student’s lack of security knowledge can imperil an entire university.

Read More: Google’s Password Alert Tool Helps Prevent Phishing Attacks

Unprotected and Unaware
College campuses are easy targets for hackers, full to the brim with potential victims who know little or nothing about online security. Though schools who employ dedicated IT personnel to teach and monitor cyber security are more likely to experience stronger overall security performance, most campuses fail to provide anything beyond a basic IT security overview for students. In addition, not only are college students unusually susceptible to hacking attempts, they’re also significantly more likely to engage in online behavior that compromises their cybersecurity. With limited budgets, young students are more willing to rely on piracy to access textbooks, movies or software instead of accessing them through official sites.

Risk Factors
Student emails are linked to university-wide networks, and a student compromised by malware can unwittingly open an entire campus network to dangerous malware infections. Thanks to the confluence of vulnerable networks and inexperienced users, universities are regular targets for malware and ransomware attacks. Among the most common threats to campus, networks are malware attacks similar to the Trojan horse virus, a type of attack that masquerades as innocuous software and tricks a user into downloading it intentionally. Other common forms of malware known to target students include Adware, a form of malware which infects victims through ads, and Conflicker, a computer worm which targets and infects the Microsoft Office operating system.

Addressing the Issue
Both college administrators and students share the responsibility of staving off future hacking attempts. Students can employ basic online security tactics, avoiding the sites that make them easy targets, installing an effective antivirus on their computers and phones, and following university guidelines for regularly changing passwords. On the university’s part, administrators should be implementing two-factor authentication, monitoring university email logins, and employing staff and student engineers as allies in combating security threats.