The cyber risks of online schooling

With lockdown forcing schools and tertiary institutions to take learning online, many new risks are facing children, families and learning institutions.
It’s now estimated that 70 percent of learners worldwide are doing some form of online education.
In South African lessons will be taking place online for the foreseeable future.
For many institutions, the switch to remote learning was unexpected, leaving little time for them to mitigate against new cyber risk before their students went into the virtual environment.
But as online learning becomes a new normal, there are certain risks to be aware of:
• Cyber bullying
Younger children who may not have had access to online social platforms are now entering online class chats and study groups.
Teachers should moderate these carefully, and parents should monitor what is being said in these forums, and who has access to them.
• Phishing
Learners with un-monitored access to online gaming, email and social media can easily be tricked into clicking on unsafe links or sharing personal information.
Parents and teachers need to educate young learners on phishing risks and the importance of keeping personal information private.
• Hacking the home
Children falling prey to cyber criminals can give hackers access to the family network, which is shared by parents working from home.
In this way, attackers could potentially also access parent’s corporate data and networks.
• Hacking learning institution networks
Unsecured school networks present the risk of hackers accessing students’ personal data and results, as well as the financial systems of the institution.
Education and awareness is the key to mitigating these risks.
Learning institutions should host information sessions for both parents and learners about cyber risk and how to guard against it.
While large institutions such as universities likely have IT security capabilities, many schools and parents are now navigating the cyber risk environment for the first time.
Education and awareness are crucial for their online security, they need to practice basic security principles and at the very least they should ensure that learning devices and applications are updated with patches.
It should also be made sure that any antivirus/malware software is current and operational.
It is also essential that any distance learning tools, both the front end used by students and the back end used by teachers, support SSL VPN and strong authentication.