Technology has become an everyday necessity. This transformation has also altered our instructional methods. With the COVID-19 pandemic involving the world, online education has grown significantly. Everything is online now; from schools to colleges to extracurricular. As online education platforms increase, the global eLearning market is calculated to reach $325 billion by 2025.
However, any innovation or adaptation has obstacles. You must also be competent in securing your online learning platform from all cyber threats to manage them. Strong cybersecurity is essential since the technology contains student, instructor, and educational institution data.
Ways to Secure Your Online Platform
Below are some ways to secure your online learning platform
1: Secure online learning platform with an SSL certificate
SSL certificates represent the most dependable and trusted encryption solution available. By implementing a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate, you can elevate your website's security from HTTP to HTTPS, with the 'S' signifying a robust defense against potential intruders. You can save a lot’s by choosing cheap SSL Certificates like RapidSSL, Comodo SSL, or Thawte SSL and installing them right away.
The very name SSL conveys the additional layer of security your website receives. It ensures that data transmission between the web server and the browser remains encrypted, impervious to decryption attempts by third parties.
You can confidently transmit vital messages and information through this secure channel. Websites equipped with an SSL certificate display a padlock icon in the address bar, providing visual assurance of their security.
2: Setup powerful, multiple backup systems
No one is immune to hacking if Google, Yahoo!, and the US government can all be compromised.
The best security precaution you can take to safeguard your online learning platform may be to set up reliable backup procedures on many occasions. Do not play with your backups since you should be prepared to become the victim of a well-funded hacker at any time.
Establish a system that regularly backs up your system to multiple backup solutions in the cloud and locally. In this manner, you may quickly resume operations using your backup if things get out of hand.
3: Implement and Promote 2-factor Authentication.
Managing an online learning platform comes with the inevitable challenge of user security, as even the most diligent users can become vulnerable, particularly when dealing with a large user base.
In an environment where prominent websites face hacking incidents regularly, the compromise of a single user can expose their login credentials, jeopardizing their accounts on various sites if they use the same login information across platforms.
To secure online learning and diminish the likelihood of compromised user data, enabling and encouraging, ideally, mandate, 2-factor authentication is advisable. By doing so, even in cases where platform users fall victim to hacking attempts, malicious actors attempting to log in would be thwarted.
This is because they would need to authenticate their access with a code obtained through their mobile devices, rendering the stolen login information practically useless in the hands of the average hacker.
4: Data access control
Both teachers and students use online learning environments that contain sensitive information. You can limit user access to such materials to prevent access by unauthorized people—control who has access to what information and only give some access to something. There are instances where students attempt to obtain private data, but controlling access can help you to protect your online privacy.
5: Managing regular security checks
To prevent fraud, an online education platform should go through regular security inspections. Regular platform checks will enable you to spot several problems before losing important data. Regular maintenance also lets you reboot your platform and protects against online glitches.
6: Stay Current with Updates and Patches for Your Learning Management System
The digital landscape is evolving rapidly, and hackers are equally relentless. If it has been a year since your last update to your learning management system, you are leaving the door open for a potential breach in the future. Especially if your LMS has a history of security vulnerabilities, it might be wise to explore alternative options.
It is imperative to keep your Learning Management System up-to-date consistently. Security updates and new releases are frequently issued to address software bugs, and promptly applying these updates can spare you significant headaches further down the road.
Conclusion
Cybercrimes are on a steep incline, and as we witness a pervasive shift toward a digital landscape, the exposure to such nefarious activities is expanding at an alarming rate. Cyber hackers are relentlessly targeting systems and networks at an astonishing pace – one attack every 39 seconds.
Isn't it imperative, then, to take proactive measures to safeguard your online education platform from these risks? After all, the goal is to ensure security and deliver an exceptional user experience.
