An e-mail scam has hit tens of thousands of users at dozens of colleges over the past few weeks, leaving network administrators scrambling to respond before campus computer accounts are taken over by spammers. Students, professors, and staff members at the affected colleges received e-mail messages that purported to come from the colleges' help…

Nationwide, IT breaches rose noticeably across all industries from 2003 to 2006. According to national statistics, hackers account for half of all exposures. Physical loss, theft, and fraud represent the second biggest risk. Security is an issue for all of higher education. Of all higher-education records that were exposed between 2000 and 2008, 4…

Discusses how colleges are struggling with an increasing number of attacks on their computer systems; as attacks increase, they face tough, expensive challenges in keeping intruders out. (EV)

This article describes The Onion Router (TOR). It is a freely available, open-source program developed by the U.S. Navy about a decade ago. A browser plug-in, it thwarts online traffic analysis and related forms of Internet surveillance by sending your data packets through different routers around the world. As each packet moves from one router to…

A new study identifies and ranks the 10 security gaps responsible for most outsider attacks on college computer networks. The list is intended to help campus system administrators establish priorities as they work to increase security. One network security expert urges that institutions utilize multiple security layers. (DB)

Describes university courses and programs in protecting computer networks and World Wide Web sites from vandals, cyberterrorists, and malicious hackers. Notes such courses are provided by East Stroudsburg University (Pennsylvania), Purdue University (Indiana), George Mason University (Virginia), and Texas A&M University. Also notes the federal…

San Jose State University is planning to ban Skype, a popular Internet telephone service, from the campus network because of concerns about security and bandwidth. University administrators say that the technical aspects that make Skype effective also make it dangerous and potentially crippling to a university's network bandwidth. Skype has a…

Colleges and universities are finding that ways to misbehave in computer-mediated communication come along faster than institutions can create policies to deal with them. Although most schools have acceptable-use policies, technological advances change the environment quickly and require flexible policies. Most institutions have created a mix of…