Bah Humbug: Cyber Risk in Education – A Real Lump of Coal in the Stocking!
Scott Bailey • December 13, 2024
The holiday season is upon us, and for many in the education sector, it's a time for relaxation, reflection, and festive cheer. But before you hang up your stockings and sip that hot cocoa, let’s talk about something a bit less jolly—but just as important. Moody’s Investor Service, a leading global credit ratings agency, has dampened the holiday spirit by increasing the risk rating for education and non-profit sectors from “moderate risk” in 2022 to “high risk” in 2024. While "creditworthiness" and "cybersecurity" may not seem like a natural pairing, in today’s digital world, they are more interconnected than ever. Moody’s has long provided ratings for educational institutions based on financial health and related creditworthiness.
As cyber incidents in the education sector have surged in recent years, leading to financial losses, operational disruptions, and long-term damage to reputation, Moody’s now evaluates how educational institutions manage their cybersecurity risk and factors this attribute into its ratings. It is estimated that the education and non-profit sectors own nearly $356 billion in high-risk debt. From ransomware attacks to data breaches, the risks are as real as Scrooge himself, and if educational institutions fail to take proactive steps, they may very well end up with the proverbial lump of coal in their stockings.
With the holidays approaching, remember that while the season is about joy and goodwill, cybersecurity requires vigilance. The updated Moody’s cyber risk ratings are an important reminder that the education sector’s ability to mitigate cyber risks directly impacts its financial health and future stability. By investing in robust cybersecurity practices now, institutions can preemptively defend against the "Bah Humbug" of a cyberattack.
Is improving your education institution’s cybersecurity posture one of your New Year’s resolutions? If so, TriVigil can be your trusted partner in turning that pledge into a reality.
Wishing you a safe, secure, and cyber-safe holiday season!
Scott Bailey is a compensated consultant for TriVigil.
Higher Education IT professionals must be committed to taking care of others. After all, great IT organizations were never in the business of looking after computing but were always in the business of customer service. It is not about bits, bytes, clouds, anti-virus, border firewalls or even processing credit card payments online. The best IT organizations make it all about people. But we higher ed. IT people find ourselves in the middle of a disrupted industry and this disruption is not going away. In this case, it is not the disruption of GenAI, or data breaches run wild. Instead, it is about survival. The tragic Spring 2025 story of Limestone University in Gaffney, S.C. is yet another in a growing list of institutions no longer able to weather the ominous reality. Founded in 1845, 16 years before the Civil War erupted in Limestone’s home state, Limestone overcame every challenge of a small private institution for some 180 years. That is until April 29 when Limestone’s governing board officially announced its immediate closure. The announcement came after Limestone lost some 50 percent of its enrollment in the past decade, from about 3,200 students to 1,600. A large percentage of these are student athletes as the institution fielded 23 teams at the NCAA Division II level. The closure story is repeated often enough nationally that it sadly runs the risk of no longer being newsworthy. According to federal data provided to The Hechinger Report ( https://hechingerreport.org/tracking-college-closures/ ), 28 higher education institutions closed in the first nine (9) months of 2024 alone. What does this have to do with IT departments? Everything. From an IT perspective, many institutions rely on online learning, video conferencing, worker collaboration suites, CRMs, SaaS ERPs and SIS’, and comprehensive cybersecurity tools at levels that could not have even been dreamed about in the pre-COVID world. That’s not even addressing the emerging AI world, coupled with unfunded mandates from increasingly complex IT compliance requirements. More and more money is needed to attract and retain fewer and fewer potential students at many institutions and that IT budget may look like fertile ground. Not surprisingly, some view IT as a liability – like a very expensive utility bill – as higher education muddles through this dark time. Perhaps a necessary evil, but one that needs to operate as cheaply, as possible. True enough, IT brings significant expense money, and it generates very little direct revenue in most cases. The Good Ole’ Days of IT being directed to “do more with less” is being replaced with “we can do IT without you”. All of which leads back to the higher education IT professional and the mental health impact of this disruption that really dates to the 2008 recession when budgets and staffing levels took a negative turn from which some departments never recovered. Cybersecurity and data privacy professionals are arguably facing the highest stress levels in the organization. The Information Systems Audit and Control Association’s (ISACA) 2024 State of Cybersecurity survey report notes that 66 percent of cybersecurity staff believe their role is more stressful than it was five (5) years ago ( https://www.isaca.org/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/2024/nearly-two-thirds-of-cybersecurity-pros-say-job-stress-is-growing-according-to- new-isaca-research ). Though its focus is on the higher education ecosystem in general, 2025 EDUCAUSE Horizon Action Plan: Mental Health Supports ( https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2025/1/2025horizonactionplanmentalhealth.pdf ) offers some practical, common sense and sustainable tips for the IT professional, their team, the IT organization, and beyond, to help. Like most things in an IT organization, leadership – or lack thereof – is a key difference maker. A subtle action by a leader to prioritize staff mental health similar to the department’s larger goals of professional development, productivity gains or continuous improvement will make all goals easier to achieve. It is well established that mental health wellness leads to less workplace tension, better employee retention, and less time missed due to illness. But it is also simply the right thing to do because the disruption is disrupting IT employees like never before and it seems like the disruption is here to stay. Bill Balint is the owner of Haven Hill Services LLC, contracted as TriVigil’s Advisory CIO for Education.
In a higher education world where cybersecurity, data protection and data privacy activities are bathed in multiple regulations, policies, procedures, standards and all the rest, what happens when victims claim, “compliance is just not good enough”? The answer can be quite costly. The March 2025 data breach incident at the Yale New Haven Health System (https://www.ynhhs.org/legal-notices) could potentially be such a case. Yale New Haven Health reported a data breach incident to the public on March 11, 2025, and a pair of 52-page federal lawsuits were filed on behalf of victims were already filed just over a month later. There are reports that as many as six additional suits were filed in the following days. A variety of law firms have created web pages where victims can seek legal engagement, so the number of suits could potentially increase. It does not appear Yale New Haven Health is being accused of specifically failing to meet a given governmental regulation – such as HIPAA, PCI, GLBA, or a state breach notification law. The fact that a generic notification letter about the incident can be found at the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General website implies at least that state’s requirements have been met. But according to the Hartford Business Journal (https://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/yale- new-haven-health-faces-lawsuits-over-data-breach-health-system-discloses-more-details), the suit claims Yale New Haven Health did not “…properly secure and safeguard Plaintiff ’s and Class Members’ sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) and personal health information (PHI), which, as a result, is now in criminal cyberthieves’ possession.” These lawsuits understandably infer that provider storing sensitive or confidential customer needs to use a portion of its revenue to fund customer data protection measures. The goal should be protecting data even beyond regulatory compliance demands. A Big Year For Settlements Beyond the question of governmental regulations and their relationship to lawsuits, there is no doubt higher education is suffering increased direct financial penalties resulting from data breaches. Just one example from 2025 is the $2 million settlement of the class action data breach lawsuit against St. Louis University and SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital from mid-April, stemming from the data breach of up to 93,000 individuals (https://www.hipaajournal.com/saint- louis-university-data-breach-lawsuit-settlement/). Besides the common practice of receiving identity theft protection benefits, claimants can receive up to $2,500 in unreimbursed expenses resulting from the breach. St. Louis University and SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital are not alone, as various similar suits are on schedule to be settled later in 2025. Large or small, public or private, no institution appears immune. Too Early? Too Late? Another new lawsuit is among those that confront the long-debated ”time to notify the victims” issue. Michael Harris, a potential incoming student at Lee University, filed the suit against Lee in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Tennessee (https://www.local3news.com/local-news/lee-university-sued-for-negligence-after-data-breach-impacts-thousands/article_ca5ecb44- 8872-4692-9dd8-4ce35defe574.html). The lawsuit includes multiple complaints, among them is the claim that Lee waited for more than one year to notify the impacted individuals. One could argue notifying potential victims before all facts are known runs the risk of providing incomplete information. But waiting for an investigation to complete runs the risk of victims suffering the consequences of the breach without even knowing a breach of their information occurred. Damage Over Dollars? Of course, data breaches are often about a lot more than money. They hold the potential to devastate victims by inflicting non-economic temporary and sometimes even permanent damage. The recent takeover of the New York University (NYU) website by a hacker who briefly exposed NYU applicant information datasets back to 1989 (https://nyunews.com/news/2025/04/01/nyu-data-breach-lawsuits/) serves as a reminder. Public policy – often via regulation – tries to limit the damage by requiring those who house sensitive and confidential data adhere to strict standards. But higher education institutions need to know that compliance with all regulations and data breach laws might not be enough. These large settlements should provide institutions with a constant reminder. Bill Balint is the owner of Haven Hill Services LLC, contracted as Trivigil’s Advisory CIO for Education.
TriVigil is dedicated to providing educational institutions with comprehensive cybersecurity solutions that harmonize people, policies, and technology. This commitment includes highlighting selected opportunities where cybersecurity and privacy professionals in the education sector can network, learn, meet with solutions providers and gain other insights. There are literally hundreds of cybersecurity and data privacy events – local, regional, national, international and virtual. Everything from a one-hour webinar to global large-scale events with thousands of attendees. Some are purely focused on cybersecurity and/or data privacy, while others list these as merely a sub-interest or track. Some emphasize the education sector, while others do not focus on any specific industry. Among the plethora of quality events blanketing every area of interest, TriVigil notes a pair of late spring 2025 events that include education as a specific focus. The 2025 Educause Cybersecurity and Privacy Professionals Conference will take place in Baltimore May 19-21 ( https://events.educause.edu/cybersecurity-and-privacy-professionals-conference/2025 ). It is perhaps higher education’s best-known event focused solely on these topics. This year’s “Stronger Connections for Stronger Protections” theme is evident in all five attendee tracks: · Awareness, Education, and Human Factors · Governance and Strategic Alignment · Transformational Leadership · Navigating Compliance with Confidence · Evolving Technologies and Practices With the emphasis on collaboration, it is fitting the 2025 conference is efficiently expanded such that a small increase in time spent onsite provides a large increase for attendee opportunities. The opening pre-conference workshop day remains from previous years (May 19), but the opening general session has been moved to the end of the first day, as well. This change allows for breakout sessions to begin immediately on the second day (May 20). The third day (May 21) has been extended to a full day agenda. May 19 opens with eight preconference workshops. These include two full-day, three morning half-day and three afternoon half-day options. Derrich Phillips, founder of Aspire Cyber and of the CMMC Professionals Network (CPN), provides the opening general session entitled “Beyond the Firewall: How Community Strengthens Cybersecurity in Higher Education”. May 20-21 should also be a treat as attendees can take advantage of 12 breakout session time slots, each 45 minutes in length. This is especially impressive as there are conferences twice as long that struggle to offer that many breakout session slots. Furthermore, the agenda also provides three separate times for attendees to take part in poster sessions. The conference concludes with a closing general session. Better than 45 breakout sessions spread across those 12 timeslots will be delivered in presentation and panel discussion formats by representatives from about 40 different institutions and some 20 solutions providers. Presenters and panelists from institutions span large R1 institutions and state system offices to small liberal arts schools, community colleges and those in between. 2025 NICE Conference and Expo The 2025 NICE Conference & Expo will take place in Denver on June 1-3, 2025 ( https://niceconference.org/ ). The conference touts itself as “… the annual convening of community members and thought leaders from education, government, industry, and non-profits to explore ways of developing a skilled cybersecurity workforce ready to meet the challenges of the future.” NICE itself is a program led by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), established by the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014. Florida International University is a conference co-host, further underscoring the important role of higher education at the event. New America, a non-profit think tank, serves as the conference’s other co-host. This year’s “Climbing Higher: Educating & Sustaining a Resilient Cybersecurity Workforce” theme would appear very relevant for a higher education sector challenged with talent acquisition and employee development. This is especially true with the internal cybersecurity workforce. The event opens with half-day afternoon workshops on June 1, with the conference running for two full days on June 2-3. Although the list of sessions is not available yet, a glance at the 2024 agenda indicated eight breakout session timeslots and five plenary slots in addition to the pre-conference workshops. Over 30 breakout sessions in 2024 were delivered by a mix of academia, government and industry representatives. Bill Balint is the owner of Haven Hill Services LLC, contracted as TriVigil’s Advisory CIO for Education.