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ERIC Number: EJ825791
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Dec-19
Pages: 1
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-5982
EISSN: N/A
Top 10 Threats to Computer Systems Include Professors and Students
Young, Jeffrey R.
Chronicle of Higher Education, v55 n17 pA9 Dec 2008
User awareness is growing in importance when it comes to computer security. Not long ago, keeping college networks safe from cyberattackers mainly involved making sure computers around campus had the latest software patches. New computer worms or viruses would pop up, taking advantage of some digital hole in the Windows operating system or in popular Web software, and officials would work to plug the gaps. Those were the good old days--back when many big attacks were started by hobbyists who got a cheap thrill watching geek squads scramble. Today a growing number of network bad guys are professional criminals, and they're looking to steal real money. They do not just want to post an embarrassing note on your college's home page. They want to nab the identities of students and professors to go on shopping sprees with forged credit cards. With the global economy getting lousier, officials predict that even more hackers will get into the act in search of easy cash. Increasingly, the weakest part of a network is the users, who carelessly give out their passwords or leave important information for the taking. That's the conclusion the author reached at a recent Dartmouth College conference on "Securing the eCampus: Building a Culture of Information Security in an Academic Institution," where he was asked to give his take on security threats. In this article, the author presents the top-10 list of campus computer-security risks he compiled based on several recent computing surveys and interviews with more than a dozen college-technology leaders. The ten threats to computer security are: (1) Malware and Botnets; (2) Thieves; (3) Staff Members; (4) Professors; (5) Students; (6) Outsource Partners; (7) Social Networks; (8) Phishers; (9) Cellphones; and (10) Spammers.
Chronicle of Higher Education. 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20037. Tel: 800-728-2803; e-mail: circulation@chronicle.com; Web site: http://chronicle.com/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A