Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Business Week columnist calls for personal information protection at US universities

It's not often that a columnist in Business Week says "there oughta be a law!" But that's what Scott Olson says after being notified by his alma mater that his personal information was among 197,000 records of fellow UTexas alums that was compromised by a computer hacker.

It's Time to Protect Students' Data - Business Week Online via Yahoo! News

... It got me thinking: Colleges and universities should be held to the same government compliance standards as companies that operate in health care or financial services.

After all, a third of all data leaks are at universities, according to CNET Networks. That's not surprising, as universities walk a fine line between ensuring that users, many of whom are using personal laptops and other devices, have continuous access to network resources, while keeping those same resources safe from infections and unauthorized access. All too often, security gets shoved to the back burner in favor of keeping networks open and users productive. Cybercrooks, recognizing a good thing when they see it, are making hay while the sun shines....

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