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The essence of education traditionally has involved the transition of accumulated knowledge to younger generations for most of its history. However, as the working routine changes from repetitive work to the knowledge-based activity, the requirements put to the quality of education have changed. So, how are big data and the resulting algorithms influencing teaching and helping students learn?

It can analyze how they’re doing

Because the data sets of student learning are so diverse, very slight nuances about how students are doing can be teased out. In this way, Arizona State is analyzing the keystrokes of the students using their devices to measure how well they are progressing, how they are struggling and what their weak and strong points are.

This, in turn, means that they can step in and help students long before they themselves might even be aware they’re in trouble.

Personalized programs

For the longest time, education assumed that one size fits all. It doesn’t matter how strong or weak a student’s skill is, it is better to put them among people of their own age and let them absorb whatever is being taught in that year.

Of course, this wasn’t just down to convention. It was also related to the difficulties of tracking what every student in a school needed and creating individual programs that best suited their learning styles.

Big data is changing that. As we gather more and more information about students, we don’t only get a better idea of how they’re doing, but can adjust the syllabus to better suit their learning needs. Even better, as this is automatic, this can be done for every student without overtaxing the teachers’ capability.

Evaluation without bias

Another way in which these evaluations differ is that they are no longer witnessed through the prism of a teacher’s likes and dislikes. For the longest time, we’ve known that teachers favor some students over others. For example, teachers tend to give higher grades to more attractive students. This does not happen consciously and instead is the result of how we’re put together, which makes it an incredibly difficult problem to tackle.

Big data offers a way out. After all, a computer does not recognize a student by their race, sex, or visual appeal. Similarly, big data can consider a test in absolute isolation – not giving the benefit of the doubt to students that have done better on previous exams. This creates an equal playing field where we are judged based on how we’re performing instead of all the external factors that surround it but should be irrelevant.

It can boost engagement

By exploring the numbers produced by 100s of thousands of students working on software, it will become far easier to know what is interesting to students and what is not.

Big data will then give a possibility of customization the learning experience to make what students are learning directly relevant to them. Even better, the technology will be able to analyze future lessons and use what it has learned from the student in previous encounters to modify the material as well as predict how hard the student will find it and how much time they will need.

It will even be able to conclude when students should take breaks and when they’re best served to study alone or in a group.

Fitting the right personalities together

Big data will make group projects as productive as possible. Right now, students are often grouped based on where they’re sitting in the class or who are their friends. The thing is, though likability is certainly a useful factor in deciding who to work with, it is certainly not the only way to do so.

A much better idea is to find which students are going to be the most useful to each other and group based on that. This will avoid the popularity contest whereby students that everybody wants to work with have too many choices while less popular students have too few.

Similarly, because students are grouped based on who they will work best with, class engagement will rise and struggling students can be brought back up to speed by who they work with rather than the teacher alone.

Last words

As we pay more attention to engaging all the stages of one’s memorization process, we’re going to see a revolution the learning curriculum is adopted on the fly based on a student’s energy levels, current interests and even how well they are able to focus.

Thus, having a good idea of what each student is capable of in turn will mean they can be advised in one of the most difficult decisions we all have to make, what we will do after school. In this way, big data will not just revolutionize the classroom, but even the choices we will make afterwards. That’s exciting (and perhaps a little bit scary).

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The General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR enforcement date, is quickly closing in. It’s a sweeping and relatively new form of legislation that will change the current landscape considerably. How so? Well, it puts a lot of pressure on organizations to bolster advanced data security and privacy.

More specifically, it’s a European regulation that will go into effect on May 25, 2018. It’s an update to the existing directives or legislature called the Data Protection Directive.

What Is GDPR and What Will It Do?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — which will be enforced across the entirety of Europe, including the UK — is meant to offer protection and privacy controls to the country’s citizens. Not only will they have more power, but a unified set of rules and standards are also being established to boost security and protections. There are a variety of new precautions and processes organizations will need to follow concerning all information, but mostly consumer data.

Although it’s strictly an EU law, that doesn’t mean it won’t spread elsewhere. In fact, the GDPR will have a global impact when it goes into effect. Any business, brand or team that holds, collects, stores or processes personal data from citizens of the EU will need to follow the guidelines and specifications outlined in the law. It doesn’t envelope consumers alone, either — it also includes your employees, personnel, clients and prospective clients based in the EU.

Should you choose to ignore the law, you can face fines of up to €20m or 4% of your global annual turnover.

What Rules Apply?

The rules set forth by the GDPR are quite complex. But, we can break them down so they’re easier to understand and follow — here’s an excellent infographic that accomplishes the same.

GDPR restrictions adhere to the following concepts:

• Know what data you have collected and stored, and why you have done so
• Ensure the data is structured and maintained properly
• Identify the responsible parties — who owns the data — and ensure they have access to the necessary security measures
• Encrypt sensitive information that you or anyone else would not want to be exposed
• Establish, deploy and maintain a security-aware culture within your organization
• Be prepared in the event of a breach or attack, so you can respond quickly if it does happen

Not much should stand out from standard security operations — that is, if you already value the privacy and protection of the data you have available to you. And you should, because just about every form of information is stored and accessible from the cloud these days, including your shopping habits, the places you visit, the conversations you have with friends and family, your emails, your medical records and too much more.

New York Times best-selling author Shawn DuBravac, says it best in his latest book, Digital Destiny: How the New Age of Data Will Transform the Way We Work, Live, and Communicate.

“We don’t keep things locked in our hard drives [anymore], instead we let services like Dropbox store them for us, just as a bank store most of our money.”

Today, everything is stored as data, most likely on a public network. Security and privacy should be a primary concern for every business and or individual.

Customers, personnel and anyone else you serve all care about their privacy and security. It’s just good business to at least enforce security protocols and make sure the data you are responsible for is, for the most part, protected. Don’t store raw data on a public server, always encrypt sensitive information and content, deploy the appropriate authentication measures and systems and maintain proper security — via audits — over time.

What Impact Will It Have on Businesses?

Compliance and adherence to regulatory measures are the number one concerns for lawmakers and would-be enforcers. That means these concepts should also be your utmost priorities when serving EU citizens if they aren’t already.

Farming out or “siloing” security is not a good idea in the current landscape — heck, it never was. Instead, you’ll need to ensure you embed security, protection, privacy and related protocols into the fabric and foundation of your business.

The most significant shift, of course, will be educating and training every single person, employee and partner involved in the data chain. There can be no more weak links, per se. Everyone needs to get involved, and everyone needs to work together to maintain proper security and privacy.

Expect for your spending on security to increase, but also for the training, deployment, tools and software to become prominent concerns — and investments.

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2017 was one of the worst years for data breaches yet, and it’s only downhill from here. Here’s what you need to do to prepare yourself.

These days, it seems like it’s no longer a question of if your personal information will wind up in the hands of hackers, but when. You can’t even tune into the news anymore without hearing a security failure or data breach. Fancy Bear’s attack on US Defense Contractors and attempted disruption of the Olympic games are the latest stories to make the rounds, and you can bet money that once the news cycle fades on those two, new breaches will appear to fill the void.

Sensitive data – enterprise, public sector, or otherwise – has never been targeted with quite so much frequency, and the threat surface facing modern organizations has never been greater. You need to start accounting for that. Because if you don’t, your organization might be next on the long list of breach victims.

But where exactly can you start? What can you do to protect your business and its data? How can you ensure that in this era of massive cyber attacks and digital espionage, you come out unscathed?

First, Know What You Need To Protect

The most important tool in your battle against the digital threat landscape is knowledge. You need to know what data your business needs to protect, where that data is stored, who uses that data, how they access it, and why. The most important thing is to understand the flows of data across your network.

For instance, a document containing marketing information on a product launch will likely be shared with both internal staff and external stakeholders. Both parties might open that document on a myriad selection of devices, from smartphones and tablets to laptops and desktops. Understand where that access takes place, and do your best to identify any potential vulnerabilities (an unsecured wireless network, for example).

Second, Know Your Threat Profile

What sort of criminals would want to target your organization, and why?

Are you a healthcare provider that works with data which is vulnerable to ransomware or can be sold for a mint on the black market? Are you a defense contractor that works with classified information a foreign power might want to get their hands on? Are you a consumer device manufacturer whose proprietary blueprints could destroy your competitive advantage if they’re leaked?

That’s your most valuable data, but it’s not the only information that might be compromised. Client lists, employee information, and financial data are all vulnerable as well, regardless of industry or vertical. By acknowledging this – and understanding the intent of the criminals targeting your organization – you can better prepare yourself against them.

Third, Talk To Your Employees

No matter what sort of security measures you put in place and no matter how ironclad your infrastructure, your employees will always be the weakest link. Hackers know that – it’s why phishing scams are still one of the most popular avenues of attack. It’s a lot easier to fool a tired but well-meaning staffer into clicking on a link than it is targeting an expensive, complex security system, after all.

You need mandatory security training to mitigate at least some of the risk here. Coach employees on the importance of cybersecurity, and help them understand what they’re protecting and why. It won’t prevent human-based cyberattacks altogether – everyone makes mistakes, even you – but it will allow you to mitigate the risk.

And solutions do exist to address this problem further, as well. We’ll talk more about those in a moment.

Fourth, Look At Your Partners

I recall a story I heard once about a business with a large competitive advantage over its overseas rivals, tied to a proprietary set of technologies present in all their products. This enterprise took cyber security very seriously. Its security perimeter was nigh impenetrable, and its workers all regularly had to undergo rigorous security training.

It still ended up getting breached.

See, a black hat group hired by one of the company’s rivals saw its formidable security posture, and concluded that it wouldn’t be possible to hack the company directly. Instead, it started examining the organization’s business partners. Eventually, the group noticed that one of the manufacturers the organization worked with had incredibly lax security – and that was when they struck.

Next thing the business knew, its designs were in the hands of its competitors, and its advantage in the market was gone.

The lesson in this story is simple. Even if your own security is some of the best in your industry, you cannot trust that your business partners will have the same posture as you. While working only with organizations that have proven cybersecurity can certainly help in that regard, you need to do more.

Finally, Put Your Defenses In Place

With all the necessary knowledge in place – the threats facing your business, where your sensitive data is stored, how it’s accessed and used, and your network map – you can now finally lay out your security plans. For this stage, it’s easiest to break what you need to secure down into four categories. These are people, apps, systems, and data.

For Apps, Consider The Following

• What sort of sandboxing is present on corporate apps to keep them protected against malware and data leakage?
• Are your corporate apps intuitive and easy to use? Are employees satisfied with their functionality, and satisfied that they do everything they require?
• How do your applications manage trust and authentication?
• What sort of controls is in place to keep IT in command of your apps?
• Who needs what apps, and why?

For People, Consider The Following

• How often do you carry out security training sessions?
• Do you frequently perform security tests such as false phishing campaigns or social engineering attacks?
• How prevalent is the use of personal devices in your workplace, and what are you doing to secure those devices?
• What sort of password policies have you put in place?
• If a breach occurs, what processes do you have in place to deal with it?

For Systems, Consider The Following

• How is access to your physical systems controlled?
• What monitoring tools do you have in place to log and inspect network traffic?
• What sort of backups do you maintain? Are those backups able to be quickly air-gapped in the event of an attack?
• Are there any IoT devices on your network which could present a vulnerability? How are these devices segmented?

For Data, Consider The Following

• Where is data stored, and how is it organized and accessed?
• Do you have a means of monitoring and controlling data after it leaves your security perimeter?

Cyber attacks and data breaches have reached an all-time high. Unfortunately, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Only with a comprehensive approach to an understanding of cybersecurity can you protect yourself, and keep your data out of the hands of the people who would misuse it.

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