At its annual conference, EDUCAUSE announced that the issue that is at the top of the 2018 Top 10 IT Issues is data security. This is no surprise. It has been the top concern for the past three years.
The issue, as described by IT professionals, was “developing a risk-based security strategy that keeps pace with security threats and challenges.” This is difficult in a higher education setting as the platform used in higher ed is so wide and de-centralized. Telling faculty and students that they have to take extra measures for data security is challenging in an environment that demands ease of access and use of IT assets.
Higher education administration and boards—listen up! The challenges facing higher education IT professionals include:
- Helping institutional leaders understand the realities of today’s risk-intensive environment
- Revisiting risk management planning
- Engaging students and administrators in the adoption of new tools to assist with data security
- Planning and funding for change management around data management
Engage your IT professionals to sift through these issues and establish priorities and solutions. Data security is not only top of the risk list for IT professionals, but also of administrators and boards of higher education facilities.