Campus Technology Insider

Podcast: The Link Between Academic Fraud and Cybersecurity Risk

• By Rhea Kelly
• 10/23/20

The Campus Technology Insider podcast explores current trends and issues impacting technology leaders in higher education. Listen in as Executive Editor Rhea Kelly chats with ed tech experts and practitioners about their work, ideas and experiences.

The Link Between Academic Fraud and Cybersecurity Risk

Since students have returned to school and remote learning this fall, there has been a dramatic increase in internet searches related to academic fraud — that's according to data from Cisco Talos. In a recent blog post, the threat intelligence team detailed how essay mills operate and how academic fraud websites can lead to more serious cybersecurity threats. It's a wild ride through falsified app reviews, shoddy workmanship and a rabbit hole of malicious activity.

Here at Campus Technology we had our own run-in with an essay-writing company last year – of course we weren't utilizing their services, but rather trying to schedule an interview for a story exploring the issue of contract cheating from the shadier side of the fence. After several e-mails with the company's communications director, and an agreement that they would answer questions only by e-mail, they suddenly stopped responding entirely. What's more, when we tried to track down background information on the person we'd been in contact with, there really wasn't any — his or her name was clearly a pseudonym. Ultimately, we gave up on the story.

For this episode of the podcast, I spoke with Jaeson Schultz, technical leader at Cisco Talos, about his research into academic fraud and the potentially hazardous websites and applications that go along with it.

Resource links:

• Cisco Talos: The Internet Did My Homework

Where to Listen

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