Collegiate Times

Universities are increasing computer security to ensure protection of electronic data. Some of the measures being used for security purposes are increased use of virtual private networks, spam filters and fire walls.

According to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education released Wednesday, Oct. 18, there is a great danger that intruders will gain access to confidential electronic data in institutions especially. At Virginia Tech, programs like Information Technology work to ensure that networks and systems remain secure and protected.

?In consultation with others in the university, we establish policies and standards, provide training opportunities, and offer services to help departments review their security,? said Jeb Stewart, vice president of Information Technology.

College campuses contain large amounts of student, alumni and employee information that must be maintained securely, which makes viruses and intruders even more dangerous.

?These are the key drivers for the efforts we are putting into Information Technology security,? Stewart said.

Erv Blythe, president of Information Technology and CIO, said that he thinks college campuses are more susceptible to intruders because of music and movie downloads.

?Individuals need to recognize that they open their computers? disk space and CPU cycles to the world Internet when they use peer to peer clients,? Blythe said. ?With these p2p clients (Limewire, Mopheus, BitTorrent, AresWarez, etc.) they also run the risk of sharing music and movies they may have downloaded on their computers from DVDs and CDs they legitimately purchased.? Virginia Tech systems constantly monitor the music and movies industries and when IT is notified of a violation, they work with Judicial Affairs to contact the individual.

Virus scanning and removal is also routine for incoming e-mail to the university and the Virtual Private Network is available to all subscribers to the university network.

Both Stewart and Blythe strongly encourage the use of the VTNet CD to ensure the protection of computers on campus. The disk is available for no charge to students, faculty, and staff at Software Distribution on Torgersen Bridge.

This year, Virginia Tech is introducing ?Greylisting,? a new e-mail procedure that requires incoming correspondents to university addresses to verify their legitimacy before being delivered. Also, Virginia Tech no longer uses social security numbers for university ID numbers to provide safety.

Students can also take their computers to the computer store inside of the on-campus bookstore after seeking consultation from 4Help, Virginia Tech?s Customer Support Center. The computer will then be taken to the Service Center to be worked on.

Steven Berry, a junior communication major and employee at the computer section of the Virginia Tech bookstore, said he sees a lot of computers come into the store with viruses. ?People have the antivirus programs but they forget to run them on a regular basis so they are basically just wasting them,? Berry said.

With all of the measures that Virginia Tech has ensure computer safety and privacy, Blythe said security awareness is the most important.

?The individual user is the weakest link in the security chain. Our job is to try and educate the user community and provide the tools that can help make our network and the individual user more secure,? Blythe said.