Why education IT teams must protect both human and machine identities
AI is intensifying education cyber threats, exposing dangerous gaps in human and machine identity security.
As schools, colleges and universities in the UK prepare for another academic year, they face an intensified cybersecurity threat landscape. With thousands of new students, faculty and staff joining institutional networks, attackers exploit the operational pressure to gain unauthorized access. The education sector is a prime target for ransomware, credential theft and data breaches due to high-value data and underfunded IT departments.
The back-to-school season compounds this risk with bulk account creation, mass device enrolment and the influx of third-party applications. While human identities are a primary focus of cybersecurity efforts, a critical, often overlooked aspect is the hidden layer of non-human identities (NHIs) embedded in modern education environments.
These machine identities, such as service accounts and API keys, authenticate everything from campus Wi-Fi to AI-powered chatbots. However, these NHIs are not subject to the same onboarding and offboarding processes as human users, making it challenging to manage their access and privileges. AI has amplified the threat by making phishing campaigns more convincing and introducing new attack vectors like deepfakes and AI-driven phishing.
Survey data reveals that 41% of schools have experienced AI-related cyber incidents, yet only one in four education leaders feels confident recognizing these AI-enabled threats. To mitigate these risks, education IT teams should take several steps. First, they should enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all accounts, including both human and non-human identities, to protect against credential-based attacks.
Next, they need to audit privileged access, removing unnecessary privileges for both users and machines. Deploying enterprise password managers and implementing a comprehensive inventory of all identities, including NHIs, are also crucial. By addressing both human and machine identities, education institutions can significantly reduce their cyber risk and ensure a safer learning environment for all.
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