Higher Ed’s Staffing Concerns Eased by Technology

Taking Advantage of Tools to Improve Cybersecurity

The report noted that 61% of educational institutions use between 10 and 49 security tools or platforms in their ecosystems. These tools can go a long way toward easing the burden on overworked and understaffed IT departments.

“In an average week, we may identify between 400 and 500 events that could potentially be security incidents,” says Kong Phang, CISO at Ashland University. “Given our limited staff, managing this volume efficiently is nearly impossible.”

Automated threat detection and response help supplement small IT staffs at schools such as Ashland University and others that do not have the resources to manually address every security concern. Not only do tools such as extended detection and response software and security information and event management systems help protect against and detect cyberthreats, they also help security personnel prioritize potential cyber events based on severity.

Time is the ultimate gift for understaffed IT security teams, and these platforms help put staff members’ minds at ease while they focus on the myriad other tasks that cannot be automated. Tasks that previously would have taken a full day to complete can be done in a matter of minutes, and IT security teams are able to be more proactive overall in their security approaches.

As higher education institutions continue to grow their technology ecosystems, an engaged, qualified workforce will be vital to keeping everything running smoothly. Including automated security tools as part of an institution’s overall portfolio can help address critical IT staffing issues.