Elevate Your Institution’s Cybersecurity: Proven Solutions for Education
Higher education institutions of all sizes are facing cybersecurity threats that are growing in both complexity and frequency. With 87% of students saying that a school’s tech-savviness was an important factor in their decision to enroll, it’s imperative for colleges and universities to secure their sensitive data and information without adding friction and complexity to the user experience.
200+ institutions, including 65+ community colleges use BIO-key today
Your Unique Requirements Deserve Proven Expertise and Trusted Solutions
Prioritizing Student, Staff and Faculty Needs
Achieve Security and Usability with PortalGuard
Institutions often struggle to balance user experience with strong cybersecurity. To attract students and keep current ones engaged, you need to do both.
With BIO-key PortalGuard, you can achieve this. Our Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) offers top-level security while allowing you to manage all authentication methods under unified policies. Single Sign-On (SSO) gives students and staff easy access to applications like G Suite, Blackboard, and Canvas, reducing annoying password prompts. Plus, you can implement biometrics as part of your MFA for secure authentication in remote learning environments.
Solutions and Support to Maximize Your Resources
Streamline Cybersecurity with PortalGuard
Implementing IAM controls is crucial, but doing so with limited resources often leads to a fragmented strategy and an overwhelmed IT team. Rapid changes in educational methods, like remote learning, only add to the stress.
In this challenging environment, BIO-key PortalGuard offers a “quick win” for enhancing your cybersecurity. Single Sign-On (SSO) simplifies access by reducing password friction, while our Self-service Password Reset (SSPR) can cut help desk calls by up to 95%. This allows your team to focus on more strategic projects instead of mundane tasks.
Successfully Operating in the Regulatory Environment
Protecting Sensitive Data and Compliance
Educational institutions manage vast amounts of personal, financial, and healthcare data for students and staff, making them subject to various compliance requirements. With the right security measures, you can protect this information, meet compliance standards, and maintain your institution’s credibility and reputation.
Some of the most important regulations include:
Students’ Personal and Education Data
- Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
- Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA)
- Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA)
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Students’ Healthcare Data
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH)
Students’ Financial Data
- Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)
- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS)
Educational Institutions’ Research Data
- Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA)
- National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-171
Navigating multiple regulations can be challenging, but we recognize your institution’s specific needs. Our security solutions are crafted to ensure compliance and safety. With the PortalGuard IAM platform, you gain detailed records of logins and user activity, allowing you to confidently show that your data is well-protected.
Partner in Education:
Foundation for California Community Colleges (FCCC)
Since 2014, BIO-key has partnered with the FCCC to help improve the system’s cybersecurity posture.
- Trusted by 50+ colleges and districts
- Special discount through CollegeBuys contract
- Annual sponsor of CISOA technology summit
Solutions in Action
With rising cyberattacks targeting educational institutions, you face high standards for protecting sensitive information. We handle the security challenges, allowing you to focus on what truly matters: delivering the best education for your students.
Remote Learning
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a surge in remote and hybrid learning, creating real challenges in higher education. With a diverse student body, there’s a greater need for reliable identification. Our PortalGuard IAM platform includes biometric authentication, which verifies the individual’s identity rather than just tokens or devices. This enterprise-controlled enrollment process ensures that students taking tests and faculty accessing research databases are genuinely who they claim to be.
Modern Digital Experiences for Students
As an educational institution, you aim to offer modern, seamless digital services for students. Using passwords for every application can be cumbersome. PortalGuard’s Single Sign-On simplifies this by securing all your applications—like Blackboard, Canvas, OWA, and SharePoint—under one identity provider. This eliminates the need for multiple passwords, allowing users to quickly access applications from any device.
Passwordless
Password-based authentication creates security risks, poor user experiences, and high IT costs for educational institutions. Forgotten passwords often lead to increased help desk calls and student frustration. To address these issues and protect sensitive information, many institutions are moving away from passwords. BIO-key’s biometric authentication verifies the actual identity of users, removing physical devices as vulnerabilities. This adds an essential layer of security without creating friction for users or administrators.
Zero-Trust Environments
Modern security involves granting the right people the right access to resources in the right context. This challenge is especially pronounced in higher education, where diverse user types and the rise of remote learning blur boundaries. With PortalGuard’s enterprise-controlled enrollment and biometric authentication, you can ensure that only authorized individuals access sensitive information, keeping your data secure.
Partner Spotlight
BIO-key and Pathify Reimagine the Student Portal Experience
A great online student experience is crucial, with 87% of students citing tech-savviness as key to their enrollment decisions. Partnering with Pathify, a leader in student portal solutions, we offer a secure, modern interface that helps students access resources quickly—without the hassle of passwords.
“Since we implemented BIO-key PortalGuard, password reset help desk calls have decreased dramatically. The Single Sign-On implementation could not have been easier, and we have since integrated it with SharePoint, Blackboard, Canvas, OWA, and WebAdvisor. The product is simple to configure and maintain. We could not be more pleased with how this product and company have worked for our needs.”
Clifford Sharp, Network Systems Analyst, Southwestern Community College
Product Recommendations
Multi-factor Authentication Approaches
Implement authentication approaches such as adaptive, step-up, passwordless authentication.
Single Sign-on
Secure and access all of your applications through a single point of strong authentication with a single IdP.
Self-Service Password Reset
Self-Service reset & recovery options prevent password-related help desk calls.
