Zero trust has become a top priority for many organizations, and it should be no different for colleges and universities. While every sector faces hurdles on the path to zero trust, the journey can be especially complex for higher education. Open networks, diverse user populations, and decentralized IT environments make it harder to enforce consistent security controls.

In addition, there is a prevailing idea that education operates differently than the private sector. While that is true in some regards, the responsibility to protect sensitive information is just as critical for institutions of higher education. Millions of students, parents, faculty, and staff trust these institutions with their personal data, financial records, and academic histories. Achieving zero trust is the most effective way to honor their trust and safeguard the campus community.

How Academic Advising and Zero Trust are Alike

According to Gartner, zero trust replaces implicit trust with explicit trust based on identity and context. Users and computers must perpetually authenticate themselves each and every time access is sought. This is not unlike the academic advisement checks that colleges place at every milestone. A student cannot register for courses, declare a major, or graduate based solely on prior approvals. Instead, each milestone requires renewed verification through advisement meetings, GPA validation, and prerequisite audits. In both cases, trust is not assumed from past success; it is re‑established at every critical decision point to ensure accuracy, compliance, and institutional integrity.

Zero Trust is a Gradual Transition

Zero trust is never an overnight transformation. It requires a deliberate, phased approach that starts with identifying your most critical assets, defining access policies, and strengthening identity management before rolling controls out more broadly.

Leadership must also account for the operational disruption that new security controls can introduce. Think of a campus renovation project involving occupied campus buildings. You just can’t evacuate everyone and tear down the entire structure. Instead, renovation teams work room by room, wing by wing, allotting for as little disruption to classroom operations as possible.

Controls are introduced incrementally, tested, and refined so that the business keeps running while security posture steadily improves. The less friction your security controls create, the more readily your teams will accept and adopt them.

Make Stakeholders Aware of the Threats

College campuses are often seen as peaceful, idyllic environments where staff and students are focused on learning and discovery, far removed from the constant cyber threats that exist elsewhere. However, this perception can create a false sense of security.

It’s essential to ensure that university leaders and key stakeholders fully understand the real cybersecurity risks facing the institution. Help them see the threat landscape by sharing clear, concrete information:

• Explain the sheer volume of credential attacks launched against university email accounts every day.
• Provide statistics on the number of phishing attacks targeting staff and students each month.
• Share real-world examples of cybersecurity incidents at other educational institutions, such as cases where research data was stolen, classroom systems were taken offline by ransomware, or operations were disrupted by DDoS attacks or major data breaches.

It’s difficult to gain support for strong security measures like zero trust architecture when stakeholders aren’t fully aware of the risks. Awareness is the first step toward building a culture of cybersecurity on campus.

Achieving Leader Buy-in

One challenge somewhat unique to higher education is the absence of a single, centralized IT security authority. Universities are typically federated environments composed of multiple schools and colleges such as the School of Business, School of Arts and Sciences, and School of Engineering. Each entity has its own leadership structure, priorities, and technical teams and this decentralized model can complicate the adoption of a unified zero trust strategy.

For zero trust to be effective, alignment across departments is essential. Security controls must be consistently applied, and policies must be supported at both the institutional and program levels. In many cases, this begins by engaging the primary academic leaders such as Deans and their executive teams. When leadership understands how zero trust protects instructional continuity, research data, and institutional reputation, they are more likely to prioritize the initiative to their staff. Faculty and staff are more likely to accept zero trust as a meaningful improvement rather than a technical constraint when the message comes from their direct leadership.

Achieving Student Body Buy-in

Students often feel invincible and may not fully appreciate the cybersecurity risks around them. It’s important to help them understand how their personal devices can affect the entire university network and why specific security policies are in place.

Include clear information about zero-trust principles and student-related security expectations during new student orientation. This sends a strong message that the university takes cybersecurity seriously and is committed to protecting students’ personal data and academic information.

MFA, as an Example

Let’s face it. No one “likes” multifactor authentication, so enforcing it universally and without preparation is likely to generate significant resistance and undermine broader zero trust efforts.

Start with privileged users first for when they are offsite as the vulnerability of that type of scenario is easily understood. Once MFA is established for privileged remote access, the next phase can extend MFA requirements to on‑premises access. This step typically requires additional explanation, as users may perceive the campus environment as inherently trusted. Explain what the tradeoff would be for not doing MFA, as accounts without MFA are far easier to compromise and that account recovery and incident remediation are costly and disruptive.

After MFA has been normalized among privileged users, the institution can expand requirements to faculty and staff and, ultimately, to students. This staged rollout allows the organization to address usability concerns, refine support processes, and build institutional acceptance while steadily strengthening the overall security posture.

Conclusion

Of course, implementing MFA is but one of several steps necessary to ensure zero trust throughout your institution. Achieving true zero trust requires a layered set of controls, well-defined policies, and an implementation plan tailored to your environment. If you’d like to explore what that looks like for your own organization, WEI’s zero-trust specialists are ready to help.

Next Steps: In this exclusive WEI Tech Talk, cybersecurity leaders from WEI, Bottomline, and Simbian discuss how AI is changing the future of security operations and what it means for organizations trying to modernize their SOC.

Watch the full discussion below to hear practical insights from security practitioners and technology leaders working at the forefront of modern SOC transformation.