Information Security and Online Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Relevance of the problem in question is associated with academics facing information threats in the virtual educational environment during the COVID-19 pandemic and the short-term transition of the education process to distance learning. We aim to analyze information threats to individuals in the Runet virtual educational environment and suggest measures to neutralize them. Research into this problem relies on a structural and comparative analysis as the theoretical approach. The empirical method of exploring this problem is an Internet-based study of user engagement in the Runet, focusing on cases in question and identifying the content that is most popular with the users. A classification of the current information threats is provided, and mechanisms for the elimination of emerging threats are discussed. Although Russia puts considerable effort, at the legislative level, into the prevention of malevolent information actions on academics, a number of particularities of virtual social environments allow for partial implementation of the measures only. The results may be of interest for specialists dealing with challenges of modern education, information warfare, information security of virtual social environments.