Six ways universities can better protect themselves against cyberattacks

Universities across Australia are being targeted by cybercriminals more and more to gain access to private information. The recent attack on the Australian National University (ANU), which resulted in data and credential theft from the compromise of ANU’s network infrastructure, started with a single spearphishing email that was only previewed.¹ This is not the first case of such sophisticated methods being used to glean personal information and research from university systems. In early 2018, for example, according to the FBI, around 26 universities across Australia were targeted by the Iranian government.²