WhiteHat Security offers free app scannning services to education institutions to secure online learning

WhiteHat Security, an independent, wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Ltd. and a leading application security provider, announced that it will offer free application scanning services to any education institution to support secure online learning.

When shelter-in-place orders were received, the majority of universities and school districts were forced to shut down and scrambled to create virtual classrooms to accommodate online learning. Pivoting to new learning platforms has put additional stress on IT departments and caused concern around the security of their online learning resources.

While essential, application security shouldn’t be a burden to schools at this time. The WhiteHat team aims to help the education sector ensure the applications used to teach students are secure — and to defend against evolving cyberattacks.

Cyberthreats targeting education are of growing concern. According to a report released by the K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center, security incidents increased threefold in 2019, and this number is expected to rise even further as a result of the pandemic.

Additionally, 44% of schools acknowledged being compromised through a mobile device breach, according to Verizon’s Mobile Security Index 2020 report.

“It’s imperative that applications used across higher education institutions, school districts and online learning platforms remain safe for students now and in the future,” said Craig Hinkley, CEO of WhiteHat Security.

“At WhiteHat, we recognize that application security is more critical than ever for the education market, and we’re doing our part to remain a strong ally during these unprecedented times.”

The free education offering is the second no-cost option WhiteHat is providing to the public sector. In January, the company also unveiled free application scanning services for federal, state and municipal agencies to combat rising nation-state cyberattacks.