Education 2.0 Conference Discusses Spam Prevention In Online Learning

The pandemic has made various schools and institutions all over the world shift to remote learning. Although it was the only alternative to continue education in times of crisis, institutions were always worried about the past cyber-attacks or digital scams that had impacted the USA’s education and learning sector. Therefore, institutions have adopted cyber hygiene to protect their students and educators from online learning scams. 

Even though institutions have IT staff that take care of the school management system and keep it away from online learning scams, it’s time to train educators on cyber hygiene to prevent the education and learning sector from upcoming online scams. Various education summits in 2022 highlighted how training teachers is a need in the growing e-learning era. With the rise in online learning scams, we need to upgrade our teachers and equip them with cyber hygiene practices, as the Education 2.0 Conference suggested.  

Cyber Hygiene & Its Importance Against Online Scams

Cyber hygiene is a set of practices that an institution or individual performs to keep its data safe and secure from online scams like phishing, ransomware, data breaches, and many others. Earlier it was also the IT staff taking care of the cyber security. In today’s times, educational institutions need more awareness among their staff to fight against cybercrime. Various education events in Vegas, like Education 2.0 Conference, shared how training the teachers about cyber hygiene and scams will ultimately prepare the students against cybercrime and prevent them from becoming victims of such online scams. 

With good cyber hygiene practices, one can protect themselves and their precious data from scammers, providing users with sound security practices. Let’s learn about the various other benefits shared at various education summits in 2022. 

Benefits

• One can manage and update their assets information with good cybersecurity measures. It helps people keep track of their data, identify vulnerabilities, resolve security gaps, and protect it from scammers’ invasions. 
• With people leaving or shifting to other departments, it’s easy to lose administrative rights. But high-level administrative controls have a significant security risk, which is why it’s necessary to keep track of its access and keep updating it on a regular basis. 
• Many users download various unnecessary software that stays in the system and do nothing other than attract the attention of the attackers. With cyber hygiene, IT staff gain access to view these unnecessary downloads and remove them timely. 
• With cyber hygiene, IT staff can track and report an organization’s security status and ensure it’s always running parallel with regulatory and compliance requirements.

By far, we have understood the importance of cyber hygiene in the education and learning sector against online learning scams. Let’s discuss the challenges highlighted at the Education 2.0 Conference associated with maintaining cyber hygiene and scam prevention. 

Challenges Of Maintaining Cyber Hygiene, Shared At Education 2.0 Conference

• Voluminous Data Availability

One of the main challenges of maintaining cyber hygiene is the presence of big data. A considerable number of users, with countless devices and assets distributed across multiple platforms, makes managing difficult. 

• Never Ending Process

Another challenge discussed at various education events in Vegas is that fraud and cyber hygiene is not something that has a fixed period or could be accomplished within a few days. It’s a process that never ends; instead, it needs security practitioners and end users to engage in routine tasks to maintain cyber security.   

• Dependency On Others

It’s difficult for the IT staff to achieve good cyber hygiene on their own. It needs the support and engagement of end users of the whole institution, even those who know little or nothing about cybersecurity. It is yet another struggle of maintaining cyber hygiene in any institution. 

Considering these challenges, many thought leaders at the Education 2.0 Conference shared that training teachers can help institutions to overcome these difficulties in the education and learning sector. Let’s discuss the added advantages of training teachers about cybersecurity. 

Teachers’ Training As The Solution To Cyber Hygiene Challenges 

• It will lower the excessive stress of IT staff about maintaining cybersecurity against online scams. 
• Once teachers are digitally trained, they can take care of not download unnecessary software and keep a check on students’ activities as well. 
• As cyber hygiene requires regular updates, teachers can be asked to do that for themselves and remind colleagues. 
• Educating teachers about the latest online scams can help in controlling the invasion of scammers into the school’s system. 

Let’s discuss the best practices highlighted by the Education 2.0 Conference against online scams that educators need to be trained about for maintaining cyber hygiene in the education and learning sector. 

Topics For Teacher’s Training, Suggested At Education 2.0 Conference 

• Basics Of Cyber Security

It’s of utmost importance to educate teachers about the various online scams and tricks used by scammers to get into the institution’s system or hack them by sending multiple malware. Many institutions at education summits 2022 shared how scammers sent emails to their teachers in the institution’s name to get their personal and financial details. If teachers were aware of phishing, social engineering, and many other related scams, they would be cautious while sharing their information online.     

• Maintenance Of Logins & Passwords

After educating the teaching staff about the basics of cyber hygiene. They need to guide about maintaining their logins and passwords. If teachers have some necessary login IDs with them, they need not share them with any other member. They need to know the importance of these highly valuable credentials. As the pandemic brought everything online, teachers needed to create their ids and passwords to access the school’s management system. Another vital thing to consider is setting solid passwords. As easy and apparent passwords seem like an open opportunity for scammers to invade their accounts. 

• Beware Of Suspicious Apps/Websites

Many education summits in 2022 discussed how teachers or students end up downloading scammy software or apps which try to invade their personal data. Educating teachers about how scammers mimic the original and renowned websites and make a small yet unnoticeable difference in the URL will trick people into visiting their websites and filling up their details. Using this personal information, the scammers then avail various benefits. 

• Choose Right Teaching Tools

Teachers used various online tools and materials during the pandemic without considering their authenticity. It was new and challenging for the whole education and learning sector, so nobody guided educators on the teaching tools. But, now, choosing the right teaching tool and material is a matter of concern. As discussed at the Education 2.0 Conference, various scammers know that teachers look for online tools to teach their students, so again they’ll try to find a loophole in the process and try to get the information of teachers and sometimes even the students by breaching the data.      

• Installation & Updation Of Antivirus Software

Last but not least, teachers must be guided about the importance of installing and updating antivirus software against security breaches and threats during remote learning. This antivirus software will help in detecting viruses and other malicious software or malware by directing specific files for the presence of malicious software, scheduling and performing automatic scans, scanning either one file or entire computer, and getting rid of malicious codes and software.  

Once the teachers are aware of these general education and learning scams, they will surely guide the students and discuss the various steps of staying away from them. This is why teacher training is a highly suggested method at various education events in Vegas. Let’s discuss a few ways by which teachers can spread their digital knowledge to students. 

Ways Suggested At Education 2.0 Conference To Spread Awareness Around Education Scams

• Cyber Hygiene In Curriculum

Many educators can include these cyber security practices in their curriculum, giving timely reminders to students about updating their passwords, not using external wifi, verifying before signing up on unknown websites, and regularly installing and updating their antivirus software. 

• Create Awareness About Educational Scams 

Educators can also have special sessions to discuss remote learning and related scams in the education sector. It can be done to create awareness among students and prevent them from getting into educational scams like scammy quiz sessions, fake lottery winning opportunities, unrealistic talent shows, and scholarship scams. This is why educationists at the Education 2.0 Conference emphasized training teachers, as mindful teachers can guide students well. 

• Avoid Sharing Passwords 

Another concern teachers shared at various education summits in Vegas was the students’ password-sharing activity, which later became a scam. Students sometimes share their passwords with their friends, who use them after a fight, out of jealousy or anger, to message other students or teachers with the other person’s id. It is also a type of scam, as the scammer uses another student’s credentials without consent. This is why it’s essential for teachers to guide students about the importance of not sharing their passwords.