Considering the unprecedented budget hardships in higher education, now may not seem to be an auspicious time to be emphasizing the importance of continuing, or even perhaps increasing, investments in information security. Decisions regarding these matters are usually in the hands of the CIOs, leaving information technology (IT) leaders in control. This may mean making tough choices for the IT environment and the institution. It may mean sacrificing elements of one's operational or strategic objectives for advancing information technology in the institution, in order to preserve and enhance the security of their environments (along with other "survival items," such as disaster recovery and business continuity planning and continued investments in major enterprise information systems). It may mean a very real example of "security versus service" choices, as key IT infrastructure and services are reduced or eliminated in order to preserve and protect other IT infrastructure and service elements providing more critical support to the academy. In this article, the authors discuss how institutions can keep their security guard up in a down economy and describe ways on how to leverage investments in IT security in these hard times. The authors first present the White House report "Cyberspace Policy Review" that outlined some bold steps for investing in cybersecurity during the economic downturn. Then, they paraphrase its seven key points, with an eye toward the challenges that CIOs and other IT leaders face on their campuses. (Contains 6 notes.)