A Duke University (North Carolina) student witnessing vandalism to the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) World Wide Web site and a University of Massachusetts, Amherst student, both studying computer science, have contributed substantially to the identification of a computer hacker destroying the NCAA site. The students' rapid…

Analyzes the impact of the U.S. Patriot Act on educational institutions, particularly in the area of information technology security. Warns that the Act could impact distance learning and campus Internet service providers, and that lawsuits are being filed against universities for having lax cybersecurity. Makes suggestions for dealing with these…

Provides a framework for examining the complex infrastructure needed to successfully implement a digital library. Highlights include database development, online public-access catalogs, interactive technical services, full-text documents, hardware and wiring, licensing, access, and security issues. (Author/LRW)

Discusses the digital-image storage system at the Archivo General de Indias (Seville) that was developed to conserve original documents and to provide optimal access by researchers. Highlights include image quality, storage medium, computer equipment, remote access, security problems, problems of intellectual property and document ownership,…

Explains the background to experimental work intended to measure aspects of the World Wide Web, which inadvertently caused two perceived security breaches on remote systems. Describes the nature of these incidents and considers why, when over 700,000 addresses were sampled, only two sites considered the activity to be an attempt to breach their…

Handheld computers are just beginning to be introduced in schools. Before adopting the latest innovation, administrators must ask careful questions about issues and implications regarding leadership, teaching and learning, staff development, technology support, planning, infrastructure, safety and security, ethics, evaluation, curriculum, change,…

Providing quality technical support in K-12 environments can be challenging. Unlike the business world, there is generally a less-than-ideal ratio of technical staff to computers, numerous software titles from dozens of vendors, and of course--a much smaller budget. The Victor Central School District in Victor, New York, has employed a number of…

Most educators have little experience or expertise in cybersecurity. Yet, it is one of the most pressing vulnerabilities in today's society. Beyond simply being aware of this vulnerability, educational leaders must ask themselves: What is an effective strategy for managing cybersecurity concerns? Whom do you trust to give you the best information?…

Can computers help with one of the most persistent challenges of large classes: the accurate and efficient measurement of student learning?

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 (PL. 104-191) is a multitiered, comprehensive, convoluted, and controversial federal law for sweeping health care reform. Although HIPAA is dramatically broader in scope than privacy protections for health care information, a provision for privacy in the form of a Privacy Rule…

School nurses and health office employees are the creators and caretakers of legal documentation. School nurses have an ethical and legal obligation to protect the integrity of electronic student health records. Although there are many threats to data integrity, from inadequate hardware to electrical surges, one of the most pervasive threats to…

Due to the now widespread use of the Internet, most companies now require computer aided design (CAD) tools that support distributed collaborative design on the Internet. Such CAD tools should enable designers to share product models, as well as related data, from geographically distant locations. However, integrated collaborative design…

The worlds of security and technology have been on an intersecting course since the first published account of the use of fingerprint identification made news in 1880 (although unpublished reports suggest its use as early as 1858). In the three and one half years since the September 11 attacks, technological advances across the security field have…

The Internet is a remarkable tool and change agent that has been successfully leveraged by colleges and universities to support, enhance, and extend the teaching/learning process; the creation of new knowledge through research; and the increasingly complex business of managing and administrating institutions. Although it supports and even creates…

In academic settings, battling Internet threats and coming out unscathed is uncommon. Unfortunately, on many college campuses cyber-security concerns rarely extend beyond the IT staff and are addressed in a disparate, ad-hoc fashion. Yet, while many universities and large corporations were hit hard by the recent NetSky and Sasser worms, fewer than…