During recent years, data thieves have severely sacrificed computer systems at a myriad of universities, including Ohio Or even, Notre Dame University, Georgetown University, Western Illinois University and University of Alaska-Fairbanks, leaving many questioning the vulnerabilities from campus networks, and challenging college Information technology (IT) personnel to find new solutions to securing the personal files of students, faculty as well as alumni.
While a stretch of hacking incidents around corporate America have accomplished recent national attention, experts say that academic institutions are in many ways more vulnerable than enterprises to security breaches for the reason that universities engender a lifestyle that emphasizes openness and also information sharing, not firewalls as well as threat prevention.
“ Even though most colleges and universities employ a professional IT AGAIN staff, each campus department and / or office might run its own computer system on that school’ s network, ” said Clete Rickert, director associated with information systems at Villanova Higher education, and a Nuesoft Xpress client. “ While this decentralized approach to managing information helps to lead to the collaborative, open atmosphere that universities foster, it also detracts from IT’ s ability to effectively secure all the computers on the network at any given time. ”
To counter this unique security challenge, IT professionals are beginning to look for ways to house fragile data – such as patient information inside a health or counseling focus – off site, instead of storing it even on a campus server that may or may not be sufficiently protected.
One option for many IT staff is the required forms service provider (ASP) mannequin. ASPs host data plus manage software programs for a wide variety of users from a get hold of, centralized data center. Some ASP applications are delivered via a Web browser. Others, like Nuesoft Xpress, avoid typically the browser environment altogether, and are delivered by a secure Connection to the web between the user’ s desktop and the ASP’ s data cardiovascular.
With so much to think about when considering how to make mission critical applications along with keep data safe, Rickert advises decision makers to take their time and think about options carefully.
“ The notion of handing over your computer data to an ASP provider might be a little daunting by some people, ” he stated. “ And, if you should do decide to move on the way to an ASP model, you then have to consider which type of ASP will best suit your needs. When Villanova’ s health center staff came to (the IT department) for input throughout a search for practice control software, we chose Nuesoft Xpress because we felt much more comfortable with the security and audit features that an Internet-based system has to offer. ”
Nuesoft Technologies Main Technology Officer Shahram Famorzadeh elaborates:
“ The fact that the Xpress application might be written in Java code adds another layer of security that her browser-based system can not even provide, ” he stated. “ Most hackers are very familiar with the addresses of the ports and the methods that browsers use to send and receive facts. That information is standard, and so is often known. Additionally, the theft of the users’ security credential, one of the most common security vulnerability negative aspects, via ‘ phishing’ techniques is not applicable in non-browser units.
By avoiding browsers, Nuesoft Technologies can use proprietary protocols and ports which are not commonly published, hence minimizing intrusion risks. Nuesoft strictly controls not only what gets sent, but how it is sent.
And an added layer of protection might not be a bad idea in a university environment where the prevailing philosophy will be to allow most everything towards the network, rather than keeping most everything out having a firewall.
“ Until colleges move away from their current open network method of security, keeping hackers away will continue to be a challenge, and IT professionals will need to turn to ASP models or other options to provide secure methods of the campus departments that could depend on them, ” Rickert said.
