Press

Will Sweeney is the Founder and Managing Partner of Zaviant. Before starting the firm in 2016, he held leadership roles at companies including KPMG, Comcast, and IBM, gaining valuable experience overseeing complex information security audits and data privacy compliance for much of the Fortune 100.

With a new administration now in office, cybersecurity is likely to take center stage as overall national security efforts become increasingly prioritized. As a result, we will continue to see stricter cyber policies from the US government, some of which will have a direct impact on federal contractors.

As the number of data breaches continues to skyrocket, it’s not a question of if a cyber attack will occur—it’s when. In the U.S. alone, the number of reported data breaches has jumped from 447 in 2012 to a record-breaking 3,205 in 2023.

Cyberattacks on colleges and universities have been on the rise for years, and this trend will likely continue in 2025. In response to this, we can expect to see a number of new data privacy and security developments that will impact higher education in the new year.

While cyber threats of all kinds increase during the holiday season, there are particular common tactics that B2B and B2C companies should watch out for and guard against, writes Will Sweeney, CEO of data privacy and security consulting firm Zaviant.

With the fall semester in full swing, college students aren’t the only ones with homework to do. Higher education institutions in Maryland must comply with the state’s new privacy law, Maryland Code Title 10, Subtitle 13A, as of Oct. 1.

With the fall semester already upon us, now is an important time for higher education institutions to take stock and bolster their data privacy and security infrastructure.

To fight against bad actors, sometimes you need to get into their mindset. When it comes to cybersecurity, one way that education technology companies are fighting back against attacks is through a process called red teaming.

It’s no secret that the cost to mitigate a data breach is skyrocketing. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, the total number of breach victims jumped nearly 500% in the first half of this year compared to 2023.