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Security/Privacy

California Enlists Higher Ed Hackers To Test Voting Machines

7/10/2007

A team of technology professors, computer security experts, and computer hackers last week met to hack into three electronic voting machines that will be used in California's first February presidential primary next year.

Notre Dame Sharpens Online Alumni Offerings

7/5/2007

The University of Notre Dame is revamping its alumni relations with social networking and online engagement capabilities, which it will provide to roughly 120,000 graduates in more than 300 alumni clubs, classes and affinity groups.

Campus Messaging System Upgrades Continue Apace

7/3/2007

Colleges and universities around the country are continuing to rapidly adopt or upgrade their electronic and wireless messaging systems for campus emergency alerts in the wake of the Virginia Tech mass murder.

U Washington To Serve Students Recording Industry Lawsuits

7/2/2007

The University of Washington last week said it would charge students it detects are illegally downloading music with copyright violations on behalf of the recording industry.

Johns Hopkins, U Maryland Open Language Tech Center

7/2/2007

Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland have been tapped by the United States Department of Defense to create and operate a high-tech language analysis center that would focus on developing systems for automatically analyzing a range of speech, text, and document image data in multiple languages.

Virtual Ed Link To Provide Emergency Response

6/25/2007

Emergency response software provider Viyya Technologies will be teaming up with energy management firm The Atlantic Cos. to launch Virtual Ed Link, a new unit designed to provide emergency management technologies for K-12 and higher ed institutions. The letter of intent between the two companies was signed earlier this month.

Virginia Tech Expands Emergency Notification

6/22/2007

Virginia Tech this week reported that it's expanding its emergency notification system "significantly," launching the new VT Alerts system July 2. The campus has also announced the appointment of John Beach as interim director of emergency management effective immediately.

NSA Recognizes Capitol College IA Curriculum

6/21/2007

The National Security Agency awarded Capitol College's (Laurel, MD) Master of Science Information Assurance (IA) curriculum for meeting federal Information Assurance courseware standards at the most advanced levels.

TAMU Corpus Christi Prof Loses Flash Drive With 8,000 Student Records

6/18/2007

A flash drive with information on about 8,000 Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi students was lost by a mathematics professor while on vacation in Madagascar, the Corpus Christi Caller reported.

Securexam 'Cheat-Proofs' Remote Test Taking

6/13/2007

Software Secure (Cambridge, MA) has released its Securexam Remote Proctor system, which provides exam security for distance learning environments. Working with Troy University's (Troy, AL) distance learning program--which maintains an advanced distance learning program--the system eliminates the need for remote students to take exams on-site or in the presence of a proctor.

Power Surge at NDSU Left Student Records Vulnerable

6/12/2007

North Dakota State University officials confirmed there was a two-week security breach that left payroll and student loan vulnerable to unauthorized access via the Internet.

UVA Security Breach: Data on 6,000 Faculty Exposed

6/11/2007

A computer security breach at the University of Virginia has exposed the names, birthdates, and social security numbers for almost 6,000 faculty members. The exposed faculty worked at UVA between 1990 and 2003. Their information has been compromised, and their identities could be stolen.

Consensus: Decentralized IT Led to Boulder Hack

6/8/2007

The University of Colorado at Boulder reported that a hacker May 12 exposed about 45,000 students' names and Social Security numbers. The incident affected students enrolled at any time from 2002 to the present, the school said.

Madison, Berkeley Team Develop Malware Modeling Tool

6/8/2007

A research team from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and the University of California, Berkeley have developed virus scanning software they describe as the "next generation in malware detection."

Researchers Step Closer to Cracking RSA Encryption

6/8/2007

Researchers are closing in on deciphering 1,024-bit RSA encryption, security industry watchers said following an unprecedented numbers-cracking feat by a group of French, German, and Japanese researchers.

Disaster Recovery: Personal and Up Close

6/8/2007

As we move into what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts as an above normal Atlantic hurricane season, this month's column will focus on a little considered aspect of disaster recovery, personal business continuity.

U Indiana Grad Student Exposes Firefox Vulnerability

6/8/2007

Christopher Soghoian, a grad student at Indiana University's School of Informatics, has discovered a security flaw associated a number of big-name commercial extensions to the Firefox Web browser.

TAMU Prof Finds Cheap Security Via 'Thermal Noise'

6/8/2007

A Texas A&M engineer claims to have discovered a cheap but effective way to encrypt messages using "noise" generated when electrons flow along a wire.

It's Not Easy Being Red

6/7/2007

Uh oh, he's going to get all political. Nope. This has nothing to do with red state versus blue state, despite the political season. Nor has it anything to do with communist red, despite the current news about relations between the United States and Russia.

U Pennsylvania Drafts Policy to Minimize Use of SSNs

6/7/2007

The University of Pennsylvania has drafted a policy designed to minimize the use of Social Security numbers at the school after deciding the numbers constitute "sensitive data that can be abused by identity thieves to commit fraud."

UCLA Disputes Position on Congressional Piracy List

6/4/2007

Administrators from the University of California at Los Angeles are disputing the validity of data used by two congressional committees to identify universities that allowed the most illegal downloading of movie and music content on their campuses.

Academics Joining Ranks Declaring 'E-Mail Bankruptcy'

5/29/2007

More university professors are joining the ranks of those who have given up or severely curtailed their use of e-mail as a medium for personal--and most of all--private correspondence. They have had enough with electronic spam, come-ons, nonsense and smut-vertisements.

OSU Adopts Hybrid Backup Approach

5/24/2007

A new backup and restore system at Oregon State University Foundation has reduced weekly backup time for the system administrator from days, to just 90 minutes. "I'd hate to think how my Mondays would be without it," said Systems and Database Administrator Lyle Utt.

IT Funding, Student Safety Top Concerns for CIOs

5/22/2007

University information technology officials rated funding for technology as the most pressing issue they face, according to an annual "current issues" survey by the Educause higher education association. The survey asked campus IT managers to rank a series of information technology challenges on their campus, including security, funding, identity management, and strategic planning. Funding was No. 1.

Illegal File Sharing Rooted Out at Ohio U, Say Admins

5/21/2007

Ohio University boasted that, following crackdown, illegal file sharing via its campus networks has been eradicated. University CIO Brice Bible said that illegal file-sharing on the university's network had "virtually stopped," according to a report in the Athens (OH) Times.