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Computer hacking: a growing concern among college campuses |
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Tuesday, 19 September 2006 |
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by MALLORI MORRIS
News Reporter
A different higher level of education was recently introduced to the college curriculum, but students and faculty aren’t reaping its benefits.
According to a “Business Week” article printed March 2006, several
universities nationwide are finding themselves vulnerable for identity
theft through campus computer systems.
“It’s a new form of vandalism,” James Shook, academic computing services IT, said
Shook said most of what Appalachian State University handles are virus
related messages sent to students through pop-ups, Web sites or other
e-mail accounts that end up infecting the system.
Other college campus systems aren’t so lucky.
According to the article, Northwestern University, Carnegie Mellon
University and Stanford University were all targets of cyber crooks who
accessed the databases and retrieved Social Security numbers and credit
card information.
In all three cases, the information was stolen through organized crime
groups in Europe who sold the findings to counterfeiters over the
Internet or used the information for financial fraud.
“I feel like our enterprise systems are secure,” information technology IT Oscar D. Knight said.
Knight said the university recently updated Appalachian’s network
support services, which aims at burying files in a “multi-layered”
system to help prevent hackers from accessing the database.
Updating anti-virus software routinely is one way to protect the information stored on the hard drive, he said.
Even with no hacking cases reported at Appalachian, University Police Detective Jason K. Cornett said it is a serious offense.
“Cyber-stalking” and harassment cases are more prominent among computer crimes on college campuses than anything, Cornett said.
“Preventative measures should be taken,” Cornett said. “Make sure passwords are kept in a secret place and they are secure.”
Appalachian students have access to McAfee anti-virus software through
the school and can download the program from antivirus.appstate.edu,
Knight said.
 Active Image | How to protect your computer
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Students can download McAfee antivirus software from antivirus.appstate.edu while connected to the ASU network.
| AVG anti-virus software is also a good choice and students can download this program free at www.free.grissoft.com.
| ZoneAlarm, an award-winning firewall to stop hackers, offers many great features to protect your computer for free.
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