News in the Channel - issue #44

NETWORK SECURITY FOR EDUCATION PROVIDERS

makes visibility and incident response particularly important areas for channel partners to address.” Mat Pullen, director for education at Jamf, notes that because of continually squeezed budgets, schools often lack the means to upgrade devices or systems that contain unpatched vulnerabilities, let alone purchase the latest technology. “The education sector is increasingly susceptible to attacks as more devices enter schools, more services move to the cloud and more time is spent online,” he says. “Most schools don’t have dedicated support for cybersecurity, and a one-size- fits-all approach is often taken that doesn’t account for the specifics of a device or where it is being used. Devices frequently go home with students, and that security risk also needs to be considered.” What customers look for With threats increasing, what educational customers want is changing, although as Richard notes, cost remains a key consideration. “However, resellers should encourage customers to focus on the cost of inaction,” he says. “The financial and operational impact of downtime, recovery efforts and reputational damage can far outweigh the investment required to strengthen security in the first place.” Kevin Hallmark, head of global distribution at Huntress, agrees that cost matters, “but customers should focus on sustainable protection rather than the cheapest tool,” he adds. “They need visibility across endpoints, identities, email and logs; meaningful behavioural detection; practical hardening; clear reporting; and someone who can investigate, contain and remediate threats. “That is where managed security adds value. Huntress Managed EDR protects endpoints, Managed ITDR protects Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace identities, Managed ISPM helps close risky configuration gaps, and Managed SAT helps reduce human risk. Together,

they provide managed expertise and a predictable price without requiring every education organisation to build its own 24/7 SOC.” Mark Cunningham, head of public sector & solution sales at TalkTalk Business, says education customers want security that protects without slowing learning down. “Education IT leaders see speed and convenience as what matters most to students, staff and families at 40%, almost double the cross-sector average,” he says. “Reliable services and strong protection for personal data follow. In addition, 80% of education IT leaders see private, secure cloud connections as essential. “Cost is always a factor, particularly with public procurement scrutiny. However, total value matters more than the upfront price. Integrated platforms reduce the number of tools that small teams have to run. A cheaper solution that leaves detection gaps will cost far more when an incident disrupts teaching.” Importance of MFA and passkeys There are also certain baselines of security that educational establishments should have in place. “Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a baseline control, especially for administrator accounts, remote access, email and cloud applications,” says Kevin. “However, MFA is not the finish line: threat actors increasingly use MFA fatigue, adversary-in-the-middle attacks, device- code phishing, session-token theft and malicious OAuth applications. Education organisations should move towards phishing-resistant MFA, including FIDO2 security keys and passkeys. They should also monitor identity activity, because MFA alone cannot identify every hijacked session, rogue application or malicious mailbox rule. That is where Managed ITDR provides additional visibility and response.” Al Kingsley MBE, CEO of NetSupport, agrees that MFA is a baseline expectation. “It is a simple step schools should be taking to protect the login

Contributors

Richard Eglon

nebulaglobalservices.com

Erin O’Kane

barracuda.com

Mat Pullen

jamf.com

Kevin Hallmark

huntress.com

CONTINUED