How AI-powered surveillance is elevating security standards in schools and universities

Security in US educational institutions of all types remains a pressing issue for educators, governors, students and politicians. While traditional methods can typically protect students, deter criminals and prevent antisocial behavior, rising cybersecurity threats pose challenges for educators who may not have the required funds or knowledge to effectively safeguard systems. 
 
Growing student numbers and increasingly prominent broader security threats suggest smarter, more cost-effective systems may soon be required; smart solutions informed by AI technologies.
 

Understanding the K-12 cyber threat landscape

Sophisticated cybersecurity attacks present an ever-growing threat against modern educational institutions. Between 2022 and 2023, ransomware attacks against K-12 schools more than doubled, with school districts across the US suffering an average of 5 unique cyber-incidents per week.
 
With schools becoming increasingly reliant on digital technologies and Internet connectivity to meet modern teaching and learning demands, efforts to reliably secure digital landscapes in the education sector and safeguard students from severe cyber threats must become a top priority.
 
Despite rising threat levels, many administrators simply cannot stretch available budgets to cover the hiring of more dedicated cybersecurity professionals. With the average school spending less than 8% of its IT budget on cybersecurity, vulnerabilities are quickly becoming clear and severe.
 
A potential solution may be found in the growing use of AI surveillance in security systems for schools, taking inspiration from fast-growing adoption across business and government offices. 
 
Given the budgetary limitations on schools for security, AI tools present attractive and relatively inexpensive solutions for monitoring networks and devices in search of modern security threats, supporting workflows in which staff are warned of anomalous and suspicious activities promptly.
 

Making a case for AI cyber surveillance

Already in use in many corporate environments and thousands of schools, AI-enhanced security cameras are most often associated with real-time, intelligent security monitoring. Enhanced by machine learning and smart analytics software, systems can detect repeat and evolving threats. 
 
This same principle can be applied to K-12 cyber surveillance, the parallels between the two practices presenting a great opportunity for IT leaders to showcase the potential of AI to those with little knowledge of cybersecurity. School boards may struggle to grasp the benefits of AI in an entirely digital environment, so linking them to tangible practices may help to secure buy-in.
 
Although AI is still in its relative infancy, it is fast evolving to fight crime and fraud, with criminals and tricky students using AI to breach or circumvent sensitive systems. AI is quickly proving effective as a tool to help identify AI-generated fake videos, identity cards, voice traces, and similar risks, helping to combat the rising threat of social engineering in school environments.
 
Key to adoption requires helping administrators understand the growing political pressure and value of AI through its general success and in specific surveillance uses. While some parents and students may still be a little wary of AI-powered cyber surveillance systems, the benefits of these tools may be better-communicated to the layman via links to crime and assault reduction.
 

Consider the 2030 AI security landscape

Investing in AI-powered security systems today, as with similarly-positioned cloud services and software as a service (SaaS) applications, typically means the product will continue to improve over time, adding new features as they become useful to create an ever-enhancing investment. 
 
Focusing only on today’s practical benefits, the bread-and-butter simple tasks like identifying anomalous network activity, detecting likely phishing attacks and investigating suspicious attachments and data transmissions, AI is essentially an ever-present witness and responder. 
 
In the coming years, however, AIs will be trained to detect and automatically respond to much more complex threats across much wider-reaching digital systems. When coupled with workflows in which AI tools continuously and automatically enhance cybersecurity infrastructure, schools will be able to support IT professionals in significantly optimizing cybersecurity surveillance efforts.
 
And when algorithms become more advanced in the coming years, AI will be able to hear-all, see-all, and sense-all. Considering cyber crimes have grown at a rate of 15% per year over the last five years, potentially reaching costs of $27 trillion by 2027, demonstrating the benefits of AI surveillance to boards and administrators now may help to mitigate severe impacts in the future.
 

Wrapping up

To the issue at hand, education boards should consider adopting AI sooner rather than later to more effectively guide stakeholders through digital transformation. The more comfortable people are with not only the abilities of AI tools, but the principles that guide their operation, the easier it will be for users across all practices to take advantage of the powerful features AIs can provide.