Security Benchmarking Study Ranks Top 10 Strongest & Weakest Colleges & Universities
NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- In a study released today of 485 colleges and universities, the average number of days to patch vulnerable software and applications in the Education vertical is 28. For schools in bottom ranked grouping, the exposure of passwords with university email aliases is an all too common occurrence.
The 2015 Higher Education Security Report was conducted in late August from the leading security-risk benchmarking company, SecurityScorecard™, using data derived from its proprietary ThreatMarket™ platform. The patent-pending technology aggregates over 30 million daily security-risk signals and sensors across the entire Internet. The colleges and universities were selected based on digital footprint of each university, having at least 1,000 or more public-facing IP addresses.
"The nature of risk is that it is dynamic and not always in our own control; One key to reduce risk is for organizations to proactively collaborate to limit the impact from security issues," said Sam Kassoumeh, COO and co-founder, SecurityScorecard. "It is only via continuous and rigorous information capture and analysis that balanced, benchmarked measurement and rational, risk-based decision making be made."
One of the most recognized engineering and computer science schools, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), ranked last out of 485 colleges and universities analyzed for IT security risks in the report. California's Merced Community College garnered the highest security grades.
The Cambridge, MA-based MIT received an overall "D" grade in the report, but has an "F" in four of the 10 categories scored. However, MIT also received three "A" grades in: Web Application Security, DNS Health, and Endpoint Security.
"We'll be watching closely to see how colleges and universities move forward to patch their vulnerabilities and other security issues in order to limit the damage from attacks targeting software and applications," said Dr. Sergey Fogelson, Lead Data Scientist, SecurityScorecard. "We strongly suggest improved security awareness training and general security education, especially in regards to the epidemic of password exposure."
Another prestigious school – the University of Cambridge in England – received poor security grades, while MIT neighbor Boston University also ranked in the bottom grouping. On the other end of the spectrum, notable schools with high security scores include: the University of North Alabama and Pepperdine University, and others that can be found in the report.
To see the top and bottom school rankings, download SecurityScorecard's 2015 Higher Education Security Report here: http://info.securityscorecard.com/2015-education-security-report.
About SecurityScorecard
SecurityScorecard, the leading security-risk benchmarking company, allows organizations to continuously grade the security of any partner, competitor, supplier, vendor, any third party or company— without requiring permission. Compare any company's security performance against other organizations within the same industry in real time. The platform is completely self-service, making it the most business-ready and technically sound security-benchmarking platform in existence today.
SecurityScorecard was founded in 2013 by two former Chief Information Security Officers, Dr. Aleksandr Yampolskiy and Sam Kassoumeh. SecurityScorecard is made up of veteran security researchers, cryptographers, data scientists, and software engineers. The company is privately held with headquarters in New York. Security Scorecard investors include Sequoia Capital, Evolution Equity Partners, Boldstart Ventures, and others.
For further information, please visit www.securityscorecard.com, email [email protected] or call +1 800-682-1707. SecurityScorecard and the SecurityScorecard logo are trademarks of SecurityScorecard, Inc. Other marks belong to their respective owners.
SOURCE SecurityScorecard
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