Andy Viano of Ed Tech reports that there is a growing phenomenon of ghost students in the US–that is, fraudsters who use aliases to gain admittance into postsecondary institutions. Viano writes that once accepted into an institution, these scammers can abuse institution-provided cloud storage, deploy institution-related email addresses to perpetrate other scams, and even secure financial aid. The recent transition to more online operations has reportedly made it easier for this phenomenon to occur, given that students are sometimes not required to enrol in person. To protect against ghost students, Viano recommends that institutions shore up the security of their networks, including by investing in multifactor authentication and cybersecurity software.
