SecureU - Campus Computing Project Survey Shows Focus on IT Security

Cyber Security

Published: 10/24/07

Campus Computing Project Survey Shows Focus on IT Security
From "How Ready Are IT Managers for a Crisis?" by Andy Guess: Inside Higher Ed: A survey by the Campus Computing Project--the largest continuing study of the role of information technology in U.S. higher education--of 555 colleges and universities reveals that campus IT officials refer to campus network security as the most important IT issue affecting their respective institutions over the next two to three years, though the number saying so dropped from 30 percent in 2005 to 25.5 percent this year. The drop could be attributed to a marked decline in the number of cyber attacks on campus networks, with the proportion of schools reporting such attacks dropping from 51.1 percent two years ago to 45.6 percent this year. The number of institutions experiencing problems attributed to computer viruses fell from 35.4 percent in 2005 to 14.8 percent, while the number experiencing problems involving spyware dropped from 40.8 percent to 15.9 percent. The survey also showed that more universities (about 60 percent) have a plan for network disaster recovery, though less than half reported a strategic crisis communication plan as of this fall.

However, incidents related to social-networking sites increased to 13.2 percent from 9.8 percent, reflecting the growing use and misuse of sites like Facebook. Also becoming a normal part of the college student experience is music and video downloading. Just under 83 percent of all institutions surveyed said they had policies to discourage or discipline students who illegally download pirated content, with 70 percent able to revoke network privileges for violations. Over 29 percent use blocking technology to prevent illegal downloading, while 13 percent require students to take a course to learn about file sharing.

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