Suspicious messages or links are the most common digital threats targeting online students

Cybersecurity company Kaspersky has released some key findings from a study conducted this year, surveying almost two thousands respondents in key countries including South Africa. The study reveals that online students are being targeted by criminals online, with dangerous messages or links being the most common type of attack.

Of the respondents from the META collective (Middle East, Türkiye, and Africa), 79 percent were involved in education in some from in the last year. It’s this portion which Kaspersky focused on, especially the 39 percent who engaged in their education in a completely online manner, and the 31 percent who did so in a hybrid environment, which is a combination of both online and in-person learning.

63 percent of this collective had been targeted by “digital incidents”, according to Kaspersky. Of this smaller group which had been targeted, here is what they encountered:

• Suspicious messages or links: 27 percent,
• Fake apps or websites: 23 percent,
• Scams through online communities or messaging groups: 22 percent,
• Fake courses or providers: 20 percent,
• Malware in educational files or apps: 18 percent,
• Personal data exposure: 16 percent,
• Unrecognised certificates: 16 percent,
• Account hacking: 11 percent,

It’s worth noting that the percentages above are not exclusive and thus do not add up to 100 percent. What we mean by this is that any given participant in the survey could have been affected by one or more of the types of incidents.

In fact, this type of combination attack – or one event leading to another – is quite common. For example: a personal data exposure which could lead to log in credentials leaking, could then lead to an account being hacked as bad actors simply obtained the information to access the account from nefarious sources online.

Still, this information is useful as it gives online students, as well as the rest of the internet, a heads up about what kinds of attacks are most common.

We can also apply these findings to popular scams here in South Africa. Many universities warn both current and prospective students about scammers who seek payment for help with applications, boarding, funding, exam prep and other services. These criminals usually work though social media, which would fall into the “Suspicious messages or link” as well as “Scams through online communities or messaging groups” categories listed above.

In the past month alone, both the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the University of Mpumalanga (UMP) had to issue warnings against this.

“We see a growing demand for advanced training courses and university programmes delivered online. This rapid digitalisation, coupled with an evolving threat landscape, creates a clear need for comprehensive digital‑life protection. Losing a thesis because a ransomware blocks a computer, paying for a fake course or having an account compromised after clicking a malicious chat link are serious risks that anyone studying online can face. With Kaspersky now supporting ARM-based devices, our solutions extend AI-powered scam protection to an even broader range of platforms, ensuring that all user’s online activities are secured,” says Marina Titova, vice president for Consumer Business at Kaspersky.

Finally, what can online students do, besides educating themselves to the threats through studies like this? Kaspersky recommends strong passwords and a password manager, multi-factor authentication (MFA), keeping secure backups of important education files and some kind of virus protection or security solution.

[Image – CC Sony Dude on Pexels]

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