With the rise of remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many higher education institutions are facing new security challenges, which include a dispersed workforce and a student body operating 100 percent online. In today’s virtual, rapidly changing environment, it’s important to have a security plan in place to protect the university well beyond school grounds.
In this article, we’ll discuss the top five ways that higher education organizations can safeguard their data, while operating remotely during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
1. Update security and privacy documentation
Distance learning causes a new set of security concerns. For example, if staff members use personal laptops to access sensitive data from outside of school property, other people may have access to that data if the laptop is left open or unattended. While one incident like this may seem small, the risk for a data breach is exponential when hundreds of people are working from home across multiple departments.
With this in mind, it is crucial to implement proper security policies to keep all sensitive data secure when operating remotely. This includes enforcing strong passwords that include letters, numbers and symbols, avoiding public Wi-Fi whenever possible, keeping work data on work computers, and encrypting sensitive data in emails and on devices.
With the rapidly changing security landscape, it’s important to periodically review and refine your privacy documentation overall to account for a remote environment and include updated staff and student security policies, a school breach response, and information for employees on ways they can safeguard sensitive information from outside of school property.
2. Enforcing employee training
Once your policies and privacy documentation are updated, it’s important to convey the data management changes to your staff on a regular basis. As the rules around data privacy evolve, your staff will need to be educated and trained on the current policies. It’s also very important to ensure that your privacy documentation is in compliance with the latest privacy laws.
Staff training methods can vary. For example, at my company, FormAssembly, we have quizzes on a regular basis to keep everyone updated on security best practices. Regardless of how you decide to improve your privacy strategy, staff training is a crucial step.
In addition, higher education institutions should establish security champions within departments to propel training and security policy education. These roles are crucial for ensuring successful data collection and storage processes.
3. Reduce data silos
Many universities face the problem of siloed data. With data silos, certain staff members may not know where certain data is stored, or the data could be scattered and segmented as it is managed by separate departments and faculties. It can be even more challenging for university staff who are working remotely during the pandemic to gain and benefit from valuable data. For example, when data becomes lost or hard to find, it may be left unattended or forgotten about altogether. The longer that data is left in this position, the more likely it is to become compromised and vulnerable to attacks.
To reduce data silos, particularly in the midst of COVID-19, it’s important to make sure the correct people have access to the data they need to do their jobs. This can be accomplished by encouraging greater communication among coworkers, implementing centralized, compatible data systems, and moving data into a central location. This allows for greater accessibility and efficiency while streamlining processes across the university.
4. Identify ineffective data collection methods
Paper overload, manual data entry, and outdated technology are many frustrations that can be solved by simply pursuing a better data collection method.
Paper overload is a real problem, especially when the manual work involved takes valuable time away from other productive activities students could be doing, like studying or extracurricular activities. Paper forms are also inconvenient for campus staff who must sort through and manually process this information. These processes can take a toll on the entire college or university because the time and money they spend on paper and printing could be used in some other way to benefit the students. On top of that, manual data entry creates room for human error, causing unnecessary complications for both staff and students.
Another common problem that affects productivity is outdated technology. Employees are expected to be able to submit necessary information to their department quickly and easily, but they aren’t able to do so with outdated systems. These kinds of delays undoubtedly cause frustrations and limit the overall student and staff experience.
Along with these frustrations, manual data entry and outdated technology can also pose significant security threats. If sensitive information on a paper form accidentally ends up in the wrong hands, or if an outdated system gets hacked, the university can face consequences such as compromised data, identity theft, or damaged reputation of the university and its staff. Using outdated technology contributes to this as well, as outdated systems may be easier for cybercriminals to attack.
These vulnerabilities are especially noticeable during a pandemic, when university staff are mandated to work from home. The university staff cannot collectively oversee the collection of paper forms as they work from home, and they need access to newer, up-to-date technology to help them effectively collect and store necessary data. Thus, colleges and universities need to find and utilize more secure and efficient data collection tools like encrypted, compliant online forms in order to streamline processes and keep data safe.
5. Find a better data collection platform
Web forms are a great solution for many overarching problems facing higher education organizations because they allow staff members to centralize data collection with one platform. This is especially helpful for university staff who are now working remotely, as the data they are working with can be stored in a centralized location, saving them the time they would otherwise waste looking for scattered data. Using secure web forms also helps combat other problems like disconnected data collection systems, failure to comply with various data privacy regulations, and lack of engagement.
Online forms can result in a vast improvement in recruitment processes, academic success, class registration and other essential campus functions. In addition to their simplicity and convenience, secure, compliant web form platforms can provide peace of mind and certainty for university staff and their constituents.
As COVID-19 forces colleges and universities to focus on distance learning and remote operations, we are seeing the need for more security measures to help support university staff and students. With the potential for cancelled in-person classes until 2021, it’s crucial that higher education security processes are constantly updated and monitored to ensure that the remote process is sustainable for the foreseeable future.
Overall, higher education institutions must make data security a focus. They must ensure that their processes are up to date and their staff is properly educated on the importance of data security, not just during COVID-19, but in the years to come as well. This knowledge will protect not only the students, but also the staff and the institution. When colleges and universities overhaul their current privacy policies, centralize security, and start using secure online forms, they will begin to see a shift in productivity throughout their university.
About the author: Jonathan Payne is the Higher Education Subject Matter Expert at FormAssembly, the leading data collection platform.
