2008 Woodie Awards
Forum focuses on protecting student security
Adam Templeton
Issue date: 3/13/08 Section: News
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The forum discussed protecting student information on university servers, implementing efficient mass alert systems and halting the surge of illegal file sharing that has plagued college networks.
Various officials from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln shared their comments on the state of technological issues on campus.
Gary Aerts, UNL's interim associate vice chancellor for information services, talked about the difficulties of guarding students' privacy.
"There are no guarantees," he said. "Security is only strong as the weakest link - maybe something as simple as one individual who leaves their laptop unattended."
Ohio State University didn't have a permanent firewall in place in April 2006, resulting in a series of hacker attacks that exposed private alumni data.
Aerts said UNL has a network firewall for system administrators who want to protect servers loaded with sensitive data. A firewall is an appliance or application that inspects network traffic as it passes through and then denies access to users or programs it deems dangerous.
Aerts said firewalls were useful for guarding student data but weren't the only means of protection.
"It's not the end-all or be-all, just another layer of protection," Aerts said. "Just because it's not behind a network firewall doesn't mean it's not protected."
Another way student information can be leaked to the public is through professors who store student data on flash drives or outside servers. A forum member said if someone picks up a flash drive with private student information, it could be a liability issue.
"We encourage faculty to use tools like Blackboard, where grades can be maintained in a secure fashion for students," Aerts said. "We know there are instances where grades are posted elsewhere. A file you may have created five years ago you may not even remember, but it still exists."
Putting technology in place to send mass messages to students was one of the forum's keynotes. A focus was on the question of who has the authority to use a university's alert system, once in place.
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