Facebook warns of 1 million user login information compromised. How to ensure that it doesn’t happen to your school/college app?
Meta Platforms, Inc., operating as Meta and previously named Facebook, alerted as many as its 1 million users that their login data might have been imperiled by more than 400 apps available on Android Play Store and IOS Apple Store. In a blog post, on the 7th of October 2022, Meta affirmed that these apps target people across the Internet to rob their login credentials and compromise the security of their accounts.
Moreover, these malware applications were readily accessible on third-party app stores such as photo editors, VPN services, music players, and other fun utilities. Meta also briefed that these malicious apps have been brought down.
However, the thought surfaces that if the cyber security of a top-tier platform like Meta has been exploited by malevolent cyber attacks, how does one guarantee that the ERP security firewall of their campus management software won’t be jeopardized?
Taking into account the magnitude of this cyber concern, it is essential to ensure that the School Management System is utilizing premium security protocols to guarantee students’ data protection. Nonetheless, if educational institutions have eDU-SMARTZ as an integrated academic ERP, it’s all good and you don’t have to fret about the security protocols of your school management software.
Anyhow, here are a few well-founded suggestions to build a foolproof shield against cyber attacks and protect user credentials for Smart School Apps.
- Biometric Confirmation
To operate on enhanced software security, you can utilize the service of biometrics technology as a form of identification and access control. With biometric solutions such as fingerprint scanners, hand geometry, eye scanners, and face or voice recognition, you can reap considerable benefits.
In addition to enhanced security, you can acquire faster access, incredible convenience, and improved accuracy for your Campus Management System. Furthermore, the biometric access designs can be tailored according to your institution’s requirements to make security violations almost impossible.
- Two-factor Authentication
Gone are the days when only password-based authentication could protect your data because cracking the code is not rocket science anymore with all the advances in information technology.
Therefore, Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is your best resort for foolproof protection against unauthorized logins. It is an intricate, multi-layered feature that demands additional verification of your identity next to your password.
Smartly designed 2FA authenticates a user via different factors such as emails, texts, phone calls, backup codes, software tokens, and hardware tokens. An OTP verification through a code sent to the user via SMS or Email is the most common authentication method to attain certainty about the login credential security of employees, students, parents, and teachers.
- Password Hashing
Even though Biometrics and Two-Factor Authentication enable enhanced software security, the significance of strong passwords cannot be overlooked because they provide the first line of defense against unauthorized access by cybercriminals.
Hash Passwords are one-way elements for enhanced security as hashing converts a plaintext password into a cipher text string of characters using hash algorithms which makes it improbable for hackers to decrypt it.
- Password Hygiene
A variety of cyberattacks such as data breaches and individual account takeovers are a consequence of poor password hygiene.
Proper password hygiene involves techniques that users can implement to protect sensitive student information. One password hygiene instruction to live by is to create strong passwords that are not obvious, recycled, or perfunctory. The passwords must also make use of at least 12 characters including uppercase and lowercase letters along with symbols and numbers. Another prime factor is to create different passwords for distinct accounts. Make sure you don’t include any publicly available information such as names or birthdays in your passwords.
- Finite Login And Password Reset Attempts
Often, cybercriminals have the strategy to guess your password. Subsequent failed login attempts and multiple passwords reset requests indicate an unauthorized user. The reasonable way to counteract it is to limit the login and password reset attempts.
If incorrect passwords have been attempted more than the specified limit and too from the same IP address, this feature will lock out that user for a period to halt the cyberpunks in their trails. It is also effective to authorize ‘Reset Password’ links to have lifetimes during which no more reset requests are considered. This prevents cybercriminals from exploiting these links and jeopardizing the security of sensitive data.
- Session Timeout
Last but not the least, the time frame for logged-in sessions must be determined. The time duration for which a user remains authenticated must be specified, after which the authentication process needs to be fulfilled again.
Setting time out after a period of dormancy and a maximum lifetime of sessions is an underrated yet significant effort to protect and safeguard access control. In a nutshell, if you’re looking for a School/College/University Management System that provides you with one-click academic control besides following all the aforementioned security protocols so you can earn a premium academic ERP experience, our web application eDU-SMARTZ is your cherry-pic
