At EDUCAUSE, IT leaders named collaborative cybersecurity the top institutional issue for 2026, urging colleges to embed security responsibilities across faculty, staff and students. The 2026 EDUCAUSE Top 10 highlights that campus leaders view cybersecurity as an institutional culture challenge rather than a purely technical program, and that investment in training, shared governance and end‑user partnership is rising. Mark McCormack of EDUCAUSE said security can’t be framed as a barrier to core academic work; instead, institutions must make every user a partner in risk reduction. The report cites approaches such as mandatory onboarding for security practices, cross‑functional incident playbooks, and measuring security as an institutional KPI. For CIOs and provosts, the guidance means aligning budget, training and governance: small colleges in particular should prioritize low‑cost user education and cross‑campus governance to reduce breach risk and liability tied to research data, student records, and cloud integrations.