Since April 2026, every applicant completing the FAFSA has been screened for identity fraud. The Department of Education introduced the requirement after Federal Student Aid concluded that stolen and synthetic identities—also known as “ghost students”—had become a serious threat to federal aid programs. Ghost student fraud deserves every higher education security leader’s attention because it demonstrates how cyberattacks exploit identity. Universities typically verify an applicant during admission, create digital accounts, and then continue trusting that identity throughout the student’s academic career. Every downstream system, including financial aid, course registration, learning management systems, email, and collaboration platforms, inherits that initial trust decision.