Data Security

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.

• By Michael Hart
• 09/29/15

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."