SecureU - Major Trends in Cybersecurity Expected for 2008

Cyber Security

Published: 10/01/07

Major Trends in Cybersecurity Expected for 2008
From "Peace (of Mind) in Our Time" by Joseph C. Panettieri: Campus Technology: Hackers are increasingly targeting university databases, prompting schools to seek out novel solutions for protecting their systems. One major trend involves installing encryption software to scramble and hide information on database servers as well as desktops. Thanks to quicker hardware and enhanced encryption software, encryption technologies can be broadly implemented, unlike in the past when such technologies were too slow, costly, and complicated to install campus-wide. Information leakage—the accidental or deliberate transfer of data from school systems—is another concern. Software that prevents information leakage should do so by investigating data transferred from PCs to mobile devices as well as via email.

Universities are also striving to secure their wireless networks by identifying and disabling rogue wireless access points. Security appliances that examine network traffic are also becoming popular, such as Fortinet's unified threat management appliance that includes firewall, antivirus, intrusion prevention, virtual private network, spyware prevention, and anti-spam capabilities. J. Keith Fowlkes of The University of Virginia College at Wise calls the Fortinet appliance "the key to our security architecture." Hofstra University uses Campus Manager, a network access control appliance from Bradford Networks, to manage, secure, and control devices that attempt to access the school’s network. Finally, the "next big thing" on the horizon for university information security is open source software, which enables programmers to collaborate in the battle against hackers. Programmers can examine open source code for vulnerabilities or bugs, and then present a solution to the problem. Meanwhile, in addition to adopting new security solutions, universities must also attend to their firewall, antivirus, patch management, and anti-spyware systems to reinforce the school's overall security structure.

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