Kaspersky, a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company, emphasized the urgent need for stronger cybersecurity measures in schools and universities in the Philippines ahead of the new school year.
This call to action comes as schools and universities prepare for the opening of classes for school year 2024-2025, which will begin on July 29 and end on April 15, 2025.
Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky emphasized that educational institutions in the Philippines must prioritize cybersecurity to protect their community’s privacy and sensitive information against the increasing number of cyber threats.
“By taking proactive measures, schools and universities can protect their students and staff, and ensure a safe learning environment,” Yeo added.
Earlier this year, Romblon State University, a state university in the Philippines, fell victim to a significant data breach perpetrated by a group known as ‘DeathNote Hacker Philippines’, which resulted in the theft of personal information belonging to both students and faculty members.
Likewise, the Philippines is currently one of the most vulnerable nations to cyberattacks. In 2023, Kaspersky detected 1.5 million local threats, prevented 4.62 million bruteforce attacks, and successfully blocked 15,312 ransomware attacks targeting organizations within the country.
To safeguard sensitive information and maintain a secure environment, Kaspersky recommended several critical actions for schools and universities. These include the utilization of advanced threat detection systems to monitor network activities and identify potential cyber threats in real-time, as well as the conduct of compromise assessment and perform regular security audits to identify and address vulnerabilities within the institution’s IT infrastructure.
Additionally, conducting staff training on cybersecurity best practices – such as recognizing phishing attempts and securing personal devices – is important, while encrypting all sensitive data in transit and at rest is crucial to prevent unauthorized access and tampering.
Kaspersky also suggested institutions to develop a robust backup and recovery plan as well as enforce immediate password changes to ensure quick restoration of operations after a cyber-attack.
In June, Kaspersky launched Kaspersky Next in the Philippines, which is the company’s next-generation product line built to protect against the onslaught of today’s sophisticated and emerging cyber threats. Kaspersky Next provides powerful endpoint protection and has essential Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) technology, as well as Extended Detection and Response (XDR) capabilities.
