Mo Balakrishnan
Chief Technology Officer,
Schools Insurance Authority
Phishing-Resistant, Privacy-Forward: The Next Era of IAM in Academia
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 | 4:30PM–5:15PM CT | EDUCAUSE Commons, Cybersecurity & Privacy Central, Poster Area
Session Type:
Poster Session
Delivery Format:
Poster
As phishing attacks continue to evolve and privacy concerns grow, higher education institutions face mounting pressure to modernize their Identity and Access Management (IAM) systems. This panel brings together cybersecurity leaders from academia and industry to explore what "next-gen IAM" really looks like: phishing-resistant authentication, privacy-by-design frameworks, and scalable approaches tailored to the unique needs of universities. We’ll highlight real-world examples, including research led by the Cybersecurity Research Institute at Texas A&M and implementation work from Allthenticate, a UCSB spinout pioneering strong MFA and decentralized identity. We'll also hear from the CISO of University of the Pacific on operationalizing modern IAM across a distributed campus environment. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies for upgrading IAM, from adopting FIDO2 and passkeys to integrating mobile-based credentials and improving user experience without compromising on security.
