The Ohio University network is under constant attacks from internal and external threats. It’s Office of Information Technology that keeps students and faculty safe while respecting their privacy.
Students, faculty and administration all access the Internet through the same Ohio University network everyday. For those in the security office of OIT, keeping those users safe while they browse is a full time job.
Thousands of Internet attacks descend on the Ohio University network each day, a threat that is constantly evolving.
“We can’t just sit down, have a five-year plan and execute that plan,” said Matthew Dalton, director of information technology security. “It changes frequently enough that no one has it right.”
Security is such a rapidly advancing industry that new security methods, and means to hack those methods, are appearing every day.
In the future, information may be secured with biometric and hologram technology, Dalton said.
"My mom was worried so she made me install malware security before I got to school,” said Angel Thornton, a sophomore studying health services. “She just wanted to protect me; she knows those hackers are smart."
Some of these hacks on OU’s network are coming from overseas.
The large number of users on a network makes colleges and universities a prime place to gather social security numbers, credit card numbers and research data.
“If (hackers) wanted to get into jet fighter design ... universities are often paid by the government and other industries to develop that research,” Dalton said. “They are the place to look for the cutting edge.”
When dealing with security issues, OIT works backwards: it examines the details and extent of the issue and then identifies which computer is causing the problem.
Working backwards is a privacy measure for users, said Sean O’Malley, communications director of the Office of Information Technology.
Usually, students and faculty computers carrying out attacks on the OU network are not doing so maliciously. Their computers have been infected with a virus or other malware that is carrying out the attack.
“The vast majority of the faculty values academic freedom, and with that, comes the freedom to surf whatever,” Dalton said.
Limiting usage to Netflix has been the only restriction OIT has placed on users, and that limit is not targeting any individual user.
Dalton compares it to driving on a university road.
“It’s really more of a speed bump to slow down traffic on this road, instead of looking at who is driving on this road,” he said.
Future caps and restrictions on websites, like the Netflix limit, are possible, said O’Malley.
For a new restriction to be established, the website would either have to be illegal, or affect the academic mission of the university.
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