More on Security in the Technology World
CISCO Systems Inc, reported late last year “$202 billion is lost every year by companies to cyber crime; more than half of cyber crime financial losses are from internal (intranets); U.S. Government alone will have experienced over 300,000 Internet attacks in 2002. Over 400,000 World Wide Web pages contain some sort of hacker tools; Cyber crimes are estimated to take place every 20 seconds; Internet attacks doubled from 2000 to 2001.”
An article in the San Jose Mercury News February 4, 2003: Computer attacks rise, firm reports. “The number of attacks on corporate networks rose 20 percent in the second half of 2002, web-security provider Symantec said…The report came 10 days after the debilitating attack of the SQL Slammer worm that slowed Internet traffic worldwide…” FHDA Instruction on a Saturday was severely affected by this worm.
Wireless presents another challenge “Drive by hacking” also known as “War Drivers” and “War Chalking”. War Chalking is when someone locates an unsecured wireless access point and a special mark is made in chalk on the edge of the road or sidewalk as a signal to other war drivers of a free Internet access point. This could be your house if you have a wireless network without appropriate security measures.
So what does all this mean? Maybe you are scared or overwhelmed or are confident ETS will take the appropriate security measures for the District. We are all in this together and technology security should be a normal part of everyone’s day-to-day responsibilities. If you are already on top of your technology (including data) security responsibilities this is great. Maybe you can help others to become more aware of security issues. Through the ETAC subcommittees we will continue increase the awareness, share information, and establish a security policy and guidelines for the District.
Working together is key. A recent article in Network Magazine stresses the importance of software patches. Software patches are software programs, which most often update the operating system such as WINDOWS or LINUX. The manufacturer freely distributes patches to prevent unknown manipulation of the computer system with the intent to disrupt service. The article states, “ Patching vulnerabilities does more to help ensure network security than any other security-related practice. Unfortunately, most organizations and users don’t consistently patch their systems.” Our goal at the District is to increase the current level of security on all servers and desktops. We will accomplish through best practices, guidelines, regular communication, increased awareness of challenges we face, and clarity of roles and responsibilities.
Another thought to keep in mind that was mentioned in a recent CISCO security seminar “Be a good Network Citizen. Your security against denial of service attacks is dependent upon the security of other hosts (computer systems) on the Internet and vice versa.”
In another article from the San Jose Mercury News about the entertainment industry and copyrighted material, “…The nation’s colleges have quietly succumbed to pressure from the entertainment industry to crack down on student use of ‘file-sharing’ networks to trade music and movies. Universities respond swiftly to notices to remove a particular song or movie from the campus network…” FHDA is not immune to these types of violations and ETS has responded promptly to any incidents brought to our attention.
ETS looks forward to working with the FHDA community to increase the level of technology security. The District’s security is only as good as our weakest link.
Would you like to be notified or kept up to date on Security holes in technology? Go to CERT
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