Barry U Adopts Anti-Cyber Attack Measures

Vectra Networks has been signed by the university in Miami to protect its data and networks against the threat of cyber attacks.

Barry University, a 9,000-student Catholic university in Miami, has signed Vectra Networks to protect its data and networks from cyber attacks.

Vectra, which specializes in the detection of in-progress cyber attacks, has installed a series of firewalls, intrusion detection procedures, sandboxing systems and endpoint protection to help Barry secure its systems. Like many higher education institutions, the university is responding to the need for more open access to connectivity, including the desire on the part of students and faculty to connect with their own devices.

"We are embracing mobility everywhere," said University Associate CIO Hernan Londono, "and there's a huge amount of risk that comes with mobility."

Along with the technical procedures in place, Vectra will use a number of automated techniques to detect the potential for cyber attacks to the university's network, including command-and-control behavior, internal reconnaissance, botnet monetization, lateral movement and data exfiltration. Using a combination of data science, machine learning and behavioral analytics, Vectra officials said they will be able to quickly identify and prioritize active attacks so that security teams can mitigate them.

Londono said Vectra has already stopped one attack while in progress, and identified misconfigured printers that potentially left the university's network susceptible to attack.

"I was shocked," Londono said. "Vectra detected a serious threat that that we needed to mitigate right away. I didn't think it was possible to have visibility into attacks as they were actually happening."

About the Author

Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.

Featured

  • AI robot with cybersecurity symbol on its chest

    Microsoft Adds New Agentic AI Tools to Security Copilot

    Microsoft has announced a major expansion of its AI-powered cybersecurity platform, introducing a suite of autonomous agents to help organizations counter rising threats and manage the growing complexity of cloud and AI security.

  • modern college building with circuit and brain motifs

    Anthropic Launches Claude for Education

    Anthropic has announced a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.

  • central cloud platform connected to various AI icons—including a brain, robot, and network nodes

    Linux Foundation to Host Protocol for AI Agent Interoperability

    The Linux Foundation has announced it will host the Agent2Agent (A2A) protocol project, an open standard originally developed by Google to support secure communication and interoperability among AI agents.

  • open laptop in a college classroom with holographic AI icons like a brain and data charts rising from the screen

    4 Ways Universities Are Using Google AI Tools for Learning and Administration

    In a recent blog post, Google shared an array of education customer stories, showcasing ways institutions are using AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM to transform both learning and administrative tasks.