Universities and other higher education institutions are more mobile than ever before. Students depend on mobile devices to access class resources and manage schedules, learning accommodations, and tuition payments. Faculty conduct research, communicate with students, and oversee sensitive student records across borders on smartphones and tablets. University healthcare staff in teaching hospitals and care clinics also rely on mobile platforms to access electronic health records. Most of these daily, high-volume tasks contain personally identifiable information (PII) that cyber adversaries are increasingly targeting for exploitation.
According to data from Zscaler’s and Microsoft’s Threat Intelligence Labs, education now represents nearly one in five mobile malware targets worldwide, and phishing campaigns against universities rose 224% in 2024, with more than 15,000 malicious QR code lures per day aimed at students and faculty. These are not opportunistic attacks, but rather calculated campaigns designed to exploit mobile devices, the most personal and least protected endpoints in the academic ecosystem.
Unlike most other sectors, higher education faces a distinct set of challenges when it comes to mobile security. The scale and diversity of devices make visibility and traditional security controls difficult to enforce. Thousands of personal devices connect to campus networks every day, and invasive monitoring is not only culturally unacceptable, but it also undermines trust and academic freedom.
The stakes are particularly high in research and healthcare. Universities with federally funded research programs or teaching hospitals must protect intellectual property, patient data, and other highly regulated information. A single compromised mobile device can result in costly compliance violations, disrupt operations, and tarnish institutional reputation.
Mobile devices also extend risk beyond the boundaries of the campus itself. Students travel with them across state and country borders, researchers carry them into fieldwork, and all users utilize them in remote or offline settings. Cyber threat actors recognize this lack of control and visibility, and they are exploiting it. Phishing on mobile is more effective than on any other channel, according to Verizon, users are 6–10 times more likely to fall for SMS phishing than email. Additionally, rogue Wi-Fi networks or compromised third-party apps provide additional pathways for attackers to harvest credentials and plant malware.
Universities are not only protecting devices; they are protecting the trust of their students, faculty, and alumni, as well as the integrity of their research and the resilience of their critical systems, workflows, and applications.
Higher education requires a solution that understands the unique realities of the mobile campus. Zimperium Mobile Threat Defense (MTD) is purpose-built to address the dynamic security and visibility requirements of mobile, BYO device ecosystems. Unlike traditional endpoint tools bolted onto mobile, Zimperium runs directly on the device, delivering real-time detection and prevention, even when offline.
Zimperium MTD is designed for higher education’s culture of transparency and trust. It is privacy-first, ensuring protection of sensitive university resources without monitoring personal data. It is invisible to end users, running quietly in the background without interrupting teaching, research, healthcare, or administrative processes. And it is operationally seamless, integrating with existing IT infrastructure and security tools institutions already rely on, including UEM, SIEM, SOAR, and XDR solutions.
Mobile devices are and will continue to be the security edge in higher education environments. As attackers grow more sophisticated and threats multiply across QR codes, rogue networks, and mobile apps, universities must evolve their security measures accordingly. Institutions that fail to secure their expanding mobile attack surface not only risk data breaches but disruptions to teaching, damage to research integrity, reputational damage in the public eye, and loss of trust among current students, faculty, and alumni.
Zimperium enables higher-education institutions to protect their mobile ecosystems without compromise. Download our Data Sheet to learn more about how Merlin Cyber can help your institution align Zimperium’s mobile device security controls with the university’s mission, and protect students, staff, and sensitive data from sophisticated mobile threats.