Two main things motivate cyber criminals, kudos and money. Whilst some just want to cause havoc, seek revenge or receive kudos from their peers, including your staff and pupils, most are in it for financial rewards.
These criminals make money directly from individuals or schools, usually by tricking people into paying money into their bank accounts or selling the personal data they accessed during an attack. Criminals wanting to sell personal data, attack schools with the single aim of accessing the data of pupils and staff, and this is where cyber security and data protection align.
The Australian Privacy Principle 12 - Security of Information, expects organisations to take reasonable steps to protect the personal information they hold from "misuse, interference and loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure." As schools come under attack more and more from cyber criminals, cyber security should be one of the approaches schools use to protect the data in their care.
Ways to align cyber security and data protection in your school
- Talk about cyber security and data protection together.
- Train your data protection lead in cyber security.
- Help people to understand that cybercriminals are predominately after personal data.
When a notifiable data breach is reported to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, they will ask you if it happened because of a malicious or criminal attack.
How can Secure Schools help?
At Secure Schools, we are experts in protecting your school from cybercrime. This includes supporting you to understand where the risks are in your networks and helping you to manage these risks, providing training to help everyone protect personal data and working with you to put processes and continuity plans in place if a cyber incident did happen.
