MBO educational institutions are preparing to connect with SURFsoc, the security operations center provided via SURF that enables organizations to identify intrusion attempts and intervene in a timely manner against intrusion attempts in the network. That is the view of outgoing Minister for Education, Culture and Science Ingrid van Engelshofen (OCW) in response to parliamentary questions about a hacking by ROC Mondriaan in August of this year. SURF provides IT and networking services to educational and scientific institutions.

According to Van Engelshoven, various measures are taken to counteract cyber-attacks on MBO organizations, This is how you write. MBO organizations form a close network in the field of information security, facilitated by the saMBO-ICT. Knowledge is shared within this network and joint activities are organized.

Contact SURFsoc

Moreover, many MBOs are already working with SURF and benefiting from the various services of SURF, assures the minister. For example, many MBO organizations contribute to SURF’s cyberthreat assessment and this year 11 MBOs participated in the bi-annual OZON Cyber ​​Crisis Exercise, which SURF is organizing with the organizations. “The first MBOs are also preparing to contact SURFsoc, SURF’s security operations center that enables organizations to identify and intervene in network burglaries in a timely manner.”

Within the MBO segment, an annual standard in the field of information security, privacy and screening, the Benchmark IBP-E, is also taken. Since 2019, all MBOs have been involved in this. “The lessons learned from this incident will be used for information security for the entire MBO sector,” the minister said about the Mondrian hack. As a result of this hack, the start of the new school year was banned.

Additional measures

Van Engelshoven asserts that hacks like those in ROC Mondriaan cannot be prevented completely. This does not change the fact that additional measures can always be taken to improve security, such as the SURFsoc service mentioned above. I will speak to the MBO Council about any barriers MBOs face when implementing such security solutions and what is required to remove them. I include the recommendations in the Inspection Panel Report on Digital Resilience in Higher Education.