Protecting the Oblivious

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Data Security

Protecting the Oblivious

4/1/2008

By Rama Ramaswami

Surf's Up

At Moravian College (PA), a private liberal arts institution with about 1,500 students, being proactive means actively involving students in data protection. "The greatest threat to web security is the student," says James Beers, the college's networking manager and network engineer. "Students are coming in not knowing the dangers. What we try to do is connect with them; give them resources to educate them. They know how to go do the fun stuff on the internet, but they don't realize that their surfing habits really affect the infections their machines get."

AT EMBRY-RIDDLE, security education and awareness is paramount. Says CIO Cindy Bixler, 'If anyone abuses the access policy, they're terminated. The guardians of the data take that very seriously.'

Beers' solution has been to install an anti-spyware appliance from Mi5 Networks. The solution, called Webgate, automatically runs a program called SpyWash that informs users when their machines are infected. Users can scan and clean their computers without interrupting their work, and without IT involvement. Implemented in 2007, the system replaces a proxy-based solution that frequently got bogged down by traffic. The new application has shown results quickly: Spam is down by 60 to 70 percent. More important, student users have come to realize that security protection is in their best interest, says Beers. Now, "the students know it. They're aware that we're protecting them. Mi5 will either block access to a site altogether, or it lets them download a solution and run it. If there's a bad adware application, the site itself may come up, but the ad is blocked out."

Like other IT administrators, Beers is constantly wrestling with privacy issues. "Public machines are under our control, but we have no control over student machines, and you can't enforce [control] the way you can in a corporate environment," he says. "You can enforce it by blocking internet access-that gets students' attention. When I get an e-mail alert from Mi5, I can block access to a machine, the student can see why, and then he can go clean his machine." Still, this kind of intervention has to be handled skillfully, he explains. "A computer is an extension of a student's life. I have to respect students' privacy and help them along."

"Help" includes providing students with tools to block or at least lessen the severity of attacks. Beers says that Moravian has contracted with security software vendor Kaspersky Lab to provide students with a copy of its antivirus program to load on their machines. "That product has antirootkit and rudimentary anti-spyware," says Beers. "We also ask students to turn on their internal firewalls to protect their machines from attacks from the ResNet."