Campus Security :: May 11, 2007

Security Spotlight

It's All About Risk
The recent shootings at Virginia Tech have focused public attention on the safety of students on our campuses. Just how safe are they anyway? What do we need to do?.

By Doug Gale

Ironically, FBI statistics show that the murder and non-negligent manslaughter rate in the United States has been steadily falling since 1993, from 9.5 per 100,000 people in 1993 to 5.6 in 2005. College and universities are even safer. In 2005 there were five murders and non-negligent manslaughters on campuses out of a population 6.3 million students. The resulting 0.08 per 100,000 students is less than 2 percent of the national average. Even after this month's horrific events, our campuses are five times safer than the national average. Stated differently, even if an event like the one at Virginia Tech were to happen every year, a student is far more likely to be murdered while home on summer vacation than on campus during the academic year....

Campus Security News

Researchers Spot New Threat: Peer to Peer Botnets
A team of computer security researchers from Johns Hopkins University, the University of North Carolina, and Georgia Tech are warning of a new generation of automated software intruders--peer to peer botnets--which they say pose an unprecedented threat because they possess no central point of failure that can be counter-attacked....
Net Scammers Swarm Following Virginia Tech Massacre
Less than 36 hours after the Virginia Tech shootings, Internet scammers were creating fraudulent charity websites, according to the U.S. Computer Emergency Response Team....
States Launch Blanket Reviews of Campus Sec Policies
Few higher education institutions ended their April calendars without launching a task force or study group to examine how to improve campus security in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings....
DHS Awards Dartmouth Cyber Security Group $11 MM
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security awarded Dartmouth College an $8.7 million grant for new studies on insider threats, privacy protection, and the economics of cyber security. The money will go to Dartmouth's Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P)...
Indiana U Earns Kudos from NSA
Indiana University was named a "center of excellence" by the super-secret federal National Security Agency. NSA specializes in intelligence gathering for United States defense and intelligence planners....
Texas A&M, Millersville U, Tops in Cyber Defense Contest
Texas A&M University and Millersville University of Pennsylvania finished first and second in the second-annual National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC), a contest to find which team could do the best job maintaining a business network that was under a simulated cyber attack....
Microsoft Partners with REN-ISAC for Higher Ed Security
Microsoft and the Research and Education Networking Information Sharing and Analysis Center (REN-ISAC) have entered into an alliance to expand Microsoft's Security Cooperation Program into higher education. The announcement came yesterday at the Educause/Internet2 Security Professionals Conference 2007 being held in Denver, CO....
Report Outlines Higher Ed Concerns on VoIP
A survey by the Association for Communications Professionals in Higher Education concluded that fewer than half of colleges and universities in North America have migrated to voice over IP networks, but many are readying conversions in the next six months to two years....

Coming Up

TDWI World Conference-Spring 2007
Boston, MA, May 13-18, 2007
Interop Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV, May 20-25, 2007
CPM West 2007
Las Vegas, NV, May 22-24, 2007
University of Illinois at Chicago: Sloan-C Blended Learning and Higher Education Workshop
Bloomingdale, IL, June 3-5, 2007
AACRAO Technology Conference: "Applying Technology to Student Services"
Minneapolis, MN, July 15-July 17, 2007
Campus Technology 2007
Washington, DC, July 30-August 2, 2007
United States Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design Conference (CPTED) 2007
Las Vegas, NV, August 1, 2007
Find More Events...

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