Category: Cyber crime

How should universities respond to robot writing?

“At one end of the spectrum are ‘the accommodators’ who see the inevitable rise of AI and conclude that fighting it is pointless. But this is a false dichotomy”

The arrival of automated essay-writing software has sent shockwaves through the global higher education sector. Academics and administrators are urgently debating how to respond to a technology that could make cheating a run-of-the-mill, free, and potentially acceptable behaviour for millions of university students.

Just last year Australia’s higher education regulator, TEQSA, was busy blocking access to scores of essay mills – websites that offer to write essays for students – usually for a few hundred dollars, with turnaround times of 24 hours to two weeks. That response now feels like it came from a bygone era, in the face of the game-changing ChatGPT, the new AI algorithm that can respond to nearly any prompt by spitting out original text right before one’s eyes.

February 15, 2023
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Cyber crime, Edtech, Europe, Higher education

The risk landscape for international education in 2023

“Planning for risk can alleviate the permanent fire-fighting state many have felt in the past three years”

Working in international education, senior leaders are used to managing risk but the last three years have shown just how complex this responsibility has become.

From the pandemic to devastating natural disasters; the growing mental health crisis to the rise in crime, and particularly the exponential increase in cybercrime; and now the cost-of-living crisis, we are living through a period of exceptional upheaval.

“No one is immune to a breach of their sensitive data”

One consequence of stay-at-home orders due to Covid-19 was an en-masse transition to working from home. Many educators and students were forced to make quick adjustments without safe and reliable procedures or equipment.

As a result, 2020 was particularly severe for school hacks, exposing many people to identity theft and credit fraud, and forcing school closures.

If you are not a cybersecurity expert, it can be hard to understand the difference between an incident and a breach. Each results in implications for security, compliance, and the organisation’s reputation.

Yet it is critical for each employee and student to follow guidelines and rules to prevent a security crisis. So where is a good place to start learning about cybersecurity? Mailbird’s Carl Andre-Brown explains.

“Students have always served as a favourite target for phishing scams – perhaps due to the combination of just setting out into the world while armed with a sizeable student loan in their bank accounts”

The rise in sophisticated cybercrime means a growing number of students are falling victim to malicious email scams, writes Agari field CTO, John Wilson. But are educational institutions doing all they can to protect their students from becoming targets?

The beginning of a new academic year means millions of students are just starting their journey into higher education. It’s a time that should represent unlimited horizons and discovery for students and educators alike. Unfortunately, thanks to the growing number of cyber criminals around the world, the new academic year also means a fresh crop of unwary victims and the opportunity for a bumper payday in stolen funds.

Email phishing scams – where the criminal tricks their victim into giving up personal information through a fraudulent email – is a growing problem that even sophisticated businesses are struggling to defend against. These emails will usually impersonate a trusted identity, such as a well-known brand, public authority or even a personal contact, to trick their target into opening them.

“The more seasoned criminals will take pains to ensure their emails are indistinguishable from the real thing”