2026 Cybersecurity Trends to Watch in Higher Education
In an open call last month, we asked education and industry leaders for their predictions on the cybersecurity landscape for schools, districts, colleges, and universities in 2026. Here's what they told us.
AI-Driven Identity Fraud and Enrollment Risk
"AI and cybersecurity are no longer separable topics; AI tools now both enable sophisticated attacks and support new defenses. Criminal groups are already using bots and AI-generated identities to create 'ghost students' who enroll, receive aid, and disappear. I suspect colleges and universities will see thousands of fake applications and millions in losses. In response, federal agencies are rolling out stricter identity verification requirements for federal student aid, including government-issued ID checks and enhanced fraud analytics. Institutions that can't keep up will likely be required to repay fraudulent disbursements. These risks are amplified in online and hybrid environments, where all interactions and documents are digital. That makes it incredibly easy to replicate or forge with AI. Deep fake documents and AI-written coursework make traditional manual screening and faculty 'gut checks' insufficient, especially at scale. Institutions will need multilayered defenses that combine stronger identity verification and behavioral analytics to spot bot-like patterns." — Nick Swayne, president, North Idaho College
Centralizing Security and Privacy Oversight
"As AI-assisted attacks become more sophisticated, organizations will need to strengthen both their technical defenses and their human readiness. Privacy and security will increasingly depend on a combined strategy that pairs effective software safeguards with ongoing staff training. Given the time and resource constraints facing technology teams, institutions will need to adopt centralized reviews of all apps and platforms, assessing them alongside their privacy and security documentation. Aligning these tools with procurement policies centered on privacy, security, interoperability, accessibility, and gen AI will shift from a recommended practice to an essential one. This approach provides clear visibility into what technologies are in use and what commitments vendors make. By taking this more disciplined approach, institutions can make informed decisions before renewing contracts or purchasing new tools, ultimately strengthening their overall risk management." — Curtiss Barnes, CEO, 1EdTech
Risk Operations and AI-Powered Defense
"As cyber attacks become more targeted and foreign adversary attacks increase, 2026 will challenge how education organizations protect the people behind their networks — students, their families, and faculty. Adversaries will evolve their tactics, targeting tuition payments, personal data, research files, and digital classroom platforms with precision. AI-generated phishing and deepfake scams will increase, blurring the boundaries between legitimate communication and deception, thereby endangering student trust and public safety. In response, many institutions will benefit from Risk Operations Centers (ROCs) as a modern evolution of traditional security operations using agentic AI. ROCs at higher education organizations will consolidate data across campus systems to mitigate cybersecurity risks in real time, prioritize threats, and coordinate faster, smarter AI-driven risk management. In 2026, proactive and strategic risk management measures will strengthen not only data protection in higher education but also restore trust across campus networks, safeguarding the lives of students and faculty who depend on secure digital access for education, research and communication." — Jonathan Trull, CISO and senior vice president for security solution architecture, Qualys
From Prevention to Recovery-Focused Resilience
"In 2026, higher education organizations will face fewer one-off incidents and more sustained attacks that challenge the fabric of campus resilience. These data-rich, research-driven, and hyperconnected environments will remain prime targets for adversaries. Over time, adversaries will increasingly favor long-term campaigns designed to disrupt operations, exploit interconnected systems, conduct espionage, and exfiltrate valuable intellectual property. To withstand attacks, organizations must adopt an ‘assume-breach' mindset, recognizing that prevention alone is no longer enough. Protecting sensitive data will focus less on defense and more on how organizations can maintain operational continuity and recover normal operations. Therefore, data recovery planning will become a strategic strength for leadership, not an afterthought. A component of this threat landscape in 2026 will be double-extortion ransomware. In these attacks, cybercriminals will lock institutions out of their systems, steal sensitive data, and threaten to publish it on leak sites if ransoms are not paid, maximizing emotional and financial pressure on students, families, and faculty. These tactics will push universities to strengthen data backup and recovery to restore operations quickly after an incident. In 2026, the most prepared organizations will be those that prioritize rapid recovery as a fundamental element of strength and cyber resilience." — Lou Karu, area vice president of U.S. SLED, Rubrik
A Turning Point for Federated Identity
"Over the last few decades, identity and access management trust federations have enabled students, faculty, researchers, and staff on college and university campuses to access a wide range of online services and resources using a single set of credentials issued by their home institution. 2026 will be an inflection point. I predict that this will be the year that IT leaders across the higher education and research community here in the U.S. are actively exploring the implications, opportunities, and risks of adopting OpenID Federation. IT leaders who support research and higher education are now engaging in conversations envisioning new federation models for governing and managing access at scale. OpenID Federation is a concept gaining traction and already being implemented in a few countries worldwide to manage federated identity in environments that require high assurance at scale, such as global research collaborations. One of its promises is to provide the necessary governance layer to manage access securely and efficiently. Just as the higher education and research community built InCommon together to enable the identity and access needs of their institutions, this next evolution of federation models requires the same collective effort and renewed commitment to explore what's possible — together." — Kevin Morooney, vice president, Trust and Identity Services & NET+, Internet2
Authenticating Student Identity at Scale
"In 2026, the biggest tech shift in education will be the fight to prove who's actually behind a student record. We're already seeing fraudsters enrolling ghost students to siphon off millions in financial aid and gain access to campus systems, and I expect that trend to accelerate as AI makes fake identities cheaper and more convincing. Institutions are under pressure from both sides: external attackers testing financial aid systems and insiders probing weak access controls. Next year, higher ed will be forced to rethink identity verification as a core part of their technology stack. Expect stronger proof-of-personhood at enrollment, tighter controls around who can access academic resources, and more human-in-the-loop checks for high-risk actions like password and MFA resets." — Aaron Painter, CEO, Nametag
Quantum Readiness Gap Amid Emerging Threats
"Education institutions will continue prioritizing ransomware defense, but some of their most critical vulnerabilities will come from areas they're not yet focused on. A widening quantum-readiness gap, combined with persistent staffing and resource shortages, will create risks that outpace their ability to manage them. As schools and universities accelerate the adoption of cloud services, artificial intelligence tools, and digital learning platforms, many will struggle to keep up with the long-term security implications of these technologies, especially as quantum decryption becomes a real threat. Highly decentralized IT environments will further expand these blind spots. Institutions that fail to act now will face greater exposure, more disruptions, and soaring recovery costs as adversaries exploit weaknesses long underestimated." — Gary Barlet, public sector chief technology officer, Illumio
Legacy Systems Expand the Attack Surface
"Education will face the highest volume of cyberattacks in 2026. In both education and healthcare, one of the greatest cybersecurity vulnerabilities lies in the challenge of integrating legacy systems with modern digital infrastructure. These sectors often operate on a patchwork of technologies, such as mainframes for patient records or student information systems, SaaS platforms for scheduling or learning management, and custom-built tools for diagnostics or administrative tasks that rarely interoperate. This lack of integration creates security silos, inconsistent authentication and logging, and fragmented backup protocols, all of which increase the attack surface. Compounding the issue, many institutions still rely on outdated tape backups or under-tested cloud appliances, leading to slow recovery times and compliance risks. As these sectors modernize, the inability to securely bridge old and new systems without introducing complexity or gaps in protection will come to a head in 2026, creating a major cybersecurity concern that bad actors will undoubtedly exploit." — Anthony Cusimano, solutions director, Object First
SOC AI Consolidation and Human Augmentation
"We're going to see major consolidation in the SOC AI space, just like we did in the SOAR market 10 years ago. The larger vendors are baking AI directly into their existing platforms, and the smaller players will get acquired for their niche capabilities. A lot of early promises around replacing Tier 1 analysts are hitting the brick wall of real-world complexity. What we'll see instead are tools designed to support humans — not replace them. The best ones will make analysts faster, more accurate, and less burned out." — Mark Orlando, SANS instructor and field CTO, Push Security
AI Accelerates Data Exfiltration Attacks
"AI will turn data exfiltration into a precision weapon. Data exfiltration is now used by 96% of all publicized ransomware attacks, and this is no accident. Encryption has become easier to defeat and requires constant engineering to stay ahead, so attackers are increasingly targeting the real prize: the data itself. The rapid evolution of AI provides powerful new tools for attackers to identify and exploit specific organizations and individuals, significantly improving the precision and effectiveness of every attack. This trend will accelerate even further in 2026, as access to even more powerful AI tools expands, and organizations continue to lack adequate monitoring and protection against data exfiltration." — Dr. Darren Williams, founder and CEO, Blackfog
AI Governance and the Fight for Digital Authenticity
"The unchecked 'Wild West' rush to deploy AI without proper safeguards will trigger a major security and trust reckoning in 2026. Over the past year, countless AI tools and systems rolled out with minimal oversight … and the fallout is coming due. We anticipate the first high-profile security breach caused directly by an autonomous AI agent in 2026, validating warnings that poorly governed AI can create new failure modes. Attackers are already leveraging AI as a force multiplier: Classic threats like phishing are being supercharged by flawless deepfake voices and personalized automation, allowing minor vulnerabilities to chain into major breaches at machine speed. In 2026, smart organizations will rein in some of their initial AI deployments with rigorous security assessments, access controls, and real-time monitoring of AI behaviors. However some will not, and the results will be devastating. Hopefully we'll see the rise of AI governance frameworks and possibly new laws holding companies accountable for AI-induced harm. Meanwhile, the deluge of deepfake-generated disinformation and fraud will prompt a fight for digital truth. As AI blurs the line between reality and fabrication, the concept of authenticity is emerging as the new pillar of cybersecurity. Companies will start investing in verification technologies (watermarks, provenance tracking, digital signatures) to ensure that what users see and hear is genuine." — Karl Holmqvist, founder and CEO, Lastwall
Enterprise Risk Limits Generative AI Adoption
"Enterprises will continue to struggle to mitigate risks in generative AI applications. There are definitely situations where generative AI can provide great value, but rarely within the risk tolerance of enterprises. The LLMs that underpin most agents and gen AI solutions do not create consistent output, leading to unpredictable risk. Enterprises value repeatability, yet most LLM-enabled applications are, at best, close to correct most of the time. Enterprises today struggle to address the security risks introduced by the inconsistent output of LLMs. In 2026, we'll see more organizations roll back their adoption of AI initiatives as they realize they can't effectively mitigate risks, particularly those that introduce regulatory exposure. In some cases, this will result in re-scoping applications and use cases to counter that regulatory risk. In other cases, it will result in entire projects being abandoned. Smart technology leaders will perform threat modeling exercises before solution development begins to identify and eliminate risks that will be unacceptable to the organization." — Jake Williams, faculty, IANS Research, and VP of R&D, Hunter Strategy