HKBU digital campus security solution honoured at CSO50 Awards 2022

Monday, 1 August 2022

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HKBU has been named as one of the winners of the CSO50 Awards 2022 presented by CSO in recognition of the University’s innovative cyber security solution.

 

HKBU has been named as one of the winners of the CSO50 Awards 2022 presented by CSO, a media brand that provides news and insights about a broad range of security and risk management topics.

The CSO50 Awards 2022 recognised 50 security projects and initiatives throughout the world that have demonstrated outstanding business value and thought leadership. The contenders were evaluated according to a uniform set of criteria by a panel of judges that included security leaders, industry experts, and academics.

HKBU received recognition for its new security project based on artificial intelligence (AI), which enables “zero-trust” network access on campus. The Office of Information Technology has worked with cyber security solutions vendors to design a multi-dimensional, auto-discovery, detection and defence solution. The solution significantly reduces the University’s response time to security breaches by establishing a real-time, 360° automatic defence mechanism against cyberattacks and suspicious network activities to minimise the adverse impact on the University community.

Under the solution’s “never trust, always verify” zero-trust approach, all endpoint devices will be verified before joining HKBU’s network. This enables the information security team to have complete visibility of threats and vulnerabilities in the campus network in all directions across the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart devices. The innovative solution not only equips HKBU with the ability to uncover the traditional malware, ransomware and phishing attacks, but it also empowers the University to address and take immediate preventive action against the unknown vulnerabilities introduced by new intelligent devices. Furthermore, the project boosts the University’s confidence in terms of speeding up its digital transformation process and introducing new devices, digital solutions and services for its staff and students.

This award-winning project marked the first time that a higher education institution in the Asia-Pacific region has developed a zero-trust solution and co-created a platform with security vendors to secure its mobile app end-to-end. This pioneering project sets a new benchmark for a cyber security framework in the higher education sector. It also showcases the successful integration of multiple technologies into a holistic and proactive platform that uses AI and deep learning techniques.

While the pandemic has accelerated the digitalisation of education, the increased use of off-campus networks and public cloud services has presented new security challenges for education institutions. HKBU’s security project provides an agile, consistent and scalable solution to meet the ever-growing needs for cyber security within the campus network.