Who hasn't received mail from a company notifying them that their personal information may have been compromised? No organization--not Amazon, not the CIA--is immune to cyberattacks, and higher education is no exception. Indeed, colleges and universities may be even more susceptible to security breaches than their corporate brethren, and the…

Too often, organizations make the mistake of treating malware infections as a series of independent occurrences. Each time a malicious program is discovered, IT simply cleans up or rebuilds the affected host, and then moves on with routine operational tasks. Yet, this approach doesn't allow the institution to keep up with the increasingly…

The burgeoning consumer-tech market is creating new challenges for higher education IT departments. As increased expectations of mobility and connectivity have students and faculty looking to consumer technology to meet their academic needs, IT must revamp operations and infrastructure to meet the demand, while keeping security risks and budgets…

As colleges and universities rely more heavily on software as a service (SaaS), they're putting more critical data in the cloud. What are the security issues, and how are cloud providers responding? "Campus Technology" ("CT") went to three higher ed SaaS vendors--Google, IBM, and TopSchool--and asked them to share their thoughts about the state of…

Will that data breach be the end of a chief security officer (CSO)? Managing information security in higher education requires more than just technical expertise, especially when the heat is cranked up. This article takes a look at how two CSOs deal with hack attacks at their universities. When Purdue University Chief Information Security Officer…

The basics of authentication are straightforward. One can prove his or her identity in three ways: (1) something one "has" (for example, a key or a birth certificate); (2) something one "knows" (such as a password); or (3) something one "is" (such as one's fingerprints, used in biometric technologies). In the world of computers and networks, the…

Data loss from life's little power calamities may be the most common form of IT disaster any campus can face. According to a 2007 industry association survey(www.connect.educause.edu/library/ecar/shelterfromthestormitandb/41174), 82 percent of higher education institutions reporting a disruptive occurrence in the five years prior to the study…

In this article, the author offers six best practices for physical and data security convergence. These are: (1) assess the cable plant; (2) choose wisely; (3) be patient; (4) engineer for high availability; (5) test the converged network to make sure it works; and (6) don't forget the humans.

The late 1980s was an exciting time to be a CIO in higher education. Computing was being decentralized as microcomputers replaced mainframes, networking was emerging, and the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) was introducing the concept of an "internet" to hundreds of thousands of new users. Security wasn't much of an issue;…

Without proper security, mobile devices are easy targets for worms, viruses, and so-called robot ("bot") networks. Hackers increasingly use bot networks to launch massive attacks against eCommerce websites--potentially targeting one's online tuition payment or fundraising/financial development systems. How can one defend his mobile systems against…

Despite intensive security measures, institutions are still suffering breaches--sometimes quite painful and costly ones. After a major breach was reported at UCLA this past November, the author spoke with "Educause" security expert Rodney Petersen, to get his perspective and advice for higher education leadership. This article presents…

There's no silver bullet to information security; universities must continue to keep their antivirus, anti-spyware, firewall, and patch management systems in good working order. These days, the largest target for hackers appears to be university databases. Now, universities are searching for new solutions to safeguard those systems. This article…

This article discusses what colleges and universities can learn from Uncle Sam and corporate America when it comes to designing secure networks and ensuring privacy. After all, schools face many of the same privacy and information security challenges seen in the business and government sectors. The fact of the matter is, in the age of cyber crime…

Ken Klingenstein has led national networking initiatives for the past 25 years. He served as director of computing and network services at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1985-1999, and today, Klingenstein is director of middleware and security for Internet2. Truth is, this networking innovator has participated in the development of the…

Nowadays, college and university auxiliary services departments are turning to text messaging types of technologies to move a host of programs and offerings into the mobile environment. A July 2007 study by Youth Trends indicated that 95 percent of college freshmen come to school with a cell phone or other handheld device, and 78 percent of them…