University Business
Alcino Donadel
July 24, 2026
Colleges and universities must strengthen defenses beyond IT as critical data breaches now originate outside of campus networks.
Expensive software and staff training may not be enough to protect students and staff as bad actors increasingly bypass these measures by exploiting third-party vendors.
Institutions have slowly accumulated a web of learning management systems, cloud services and other software to support daily operations and different department needs.
Each third-party vendor increases a college’s risk exposure, says James Lee, president of the Identity Theft Resource Center. A single point of failure can cascade across different systems, exposing multiple institutions.