Cybersecurity for Higher Education Institutions: General Strategy Vision

The higher education was challenged during the confinement due the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of provide continuous online teaching and related academic services. All cyber infrastructures were vulnerable to hacking and the access to restore and repair was dependent on the authorized access to the higher education institutions during the confinement. Then, the requirements of cybersecurity growth in terms to have higher control, immediate response and resilience after attacks. The present article is dedicated to the issues of a cybersecurity strategy in the higher education institutions based on the international experience and regulations in cybersecurity, the bills under discussion in the Chilean Parliament and in the requirements of cybersecurity in our university. The design was made based on analysis of the institutional mission and vision of our university, the public strategies of some countries, looking their common points and the fundamental concepts. From this work, three areas were found and were defined as essential pillars of the institutional cybersecurity. The three pillars exhibit interactions between them and the synergistic effect of them ensure the full cybersecurity. Those were the start point for a hierarchical scheme that includes and relates each fundamental concept and the courses of action that follow them, and call the actions to reach the purposes of the pillars. The result of the design is a network that involve all the requirements for a full institutional cybersecurity, which is a know-how scheme for the establishment of the cybersecurity in any higher-education institution.