With the continuously increasing risk of cyberattacks against its higher education institutions, the Austrian government is allocating €45 million to develop cybersecurity. The program will include the introduction of new protocols, training and simulations by 2027.
Media reports have highlighted attacks on the universities of Innsbruck and Salzburg, but authorities say the actual number and scope of attacks are far larger. Some 22 state universities are participating in the program to develop a common defense, writes Magyar Nemzet, based on a report out of Express.
“Universities are extremely attractive to hacking attacks because there’s so much data available, and new data is added every semester,” Science Minister Eva-Maria Holzleitner (SPÖ) told APA.
Security can also get complicated, especially when a student goes abroad and will be accessing their online curriculum from, say, China. And yet, universities pride themselves on being open to the world. This makes providing regular access and secure global data flow one of the biggest cybersecurity challenges in education.
The key will be for universities to act in a joint, coordinated manner.
Each institution involved has been assigned a specific task: some are responsible for education, others for software development or security testing.
Holzleitner emphasized that, unfortunately, despite being popular targets for malicious actors, “these attacks, of course, don’t stop at the lecture halls.”
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