With most schools continuing remote or hybrid learning, it has become clear that investing in a robust and resilient IT infrastructure such as cloud technology is a smart and necessary move. The cloud enables schools and districts to adapt quickly in times of crisis and continue learning for students at scale.

However, the cloud is not without risks. For example, 54 percent of IT professionals in education said employees put data at risk by sharing it in the cloud without their knowledge, according to a 2020 Netwrix report. Meanwhile, 65 percent of educational organizations don’t review permissions regularly.

Remote learning has complicated those risks. “If anything, what the pandemic has done is it has magnified the cybersecurity challenges for K–12,” says Sateesh Narahari, chief product officer for ManagedMethods, a cloud security vendor. “It has also increased the complexity of cybersafety.”

Therefore, it’s even more crucial for administrators and educators to be vigilant about security and privacy when using cloud-based platforms. IT teams must also adapt their cybersecurity strategies to keep online classrooms safe and secure.