Universities Employ Network Security Protocol to Protect Against Hackers

These days hacking is a term tossed around, often used in a good connotation while speaking. It represents a computer professional's prowess on how to do something more easily on a computer, or create a work-around for a difficult task. But true hacking is considered a serious crime of breaking into a computer network to steal or destroy sensitive data.

Universities especially have seen many onslaughts of hacking because of so many users, account logons, and homegrown computer criminals practicing on their Alma Mater.

So if you are a student or professor or anyone that owns a logon to a school's network you may want to check your IT department's protocol on how to protect yourself.

One such school that will be used as an example, University of Texas at Dallas, network security is at the forefront of their IT department's education dissemination. This will be a brief overview on that institution's guideline in protecting their network users.

UT at Dallas' IT department believes a network is only as strong as its weakest link. This means that hackers will always take the easiest route to gain access. They warn that some students will simply think that they have no data worth stealing so that student is flippant with responsibility. In actuality the school's network security is at risk simply by having one logon's access open. It's the front door to a complex network of other accounts.

The Dallas school warns of "social engineering" a technique used by hackers to convince the computer user to willing give sensitive logon information, or clues to opening their network access. Simple social engineering techniques are, by example, calling the user and posing as the school's engineer to ask them for their logon to do some phony repair. A more sophisticated approach is to use a phishing scam. Phishing is commonly used by sending a fake email, with a convincing company letterhead and form announcement that has links within it, to direct the user to another site that they think is safe. There they may be asked to give out their login or any school account information by typing it in. There are varied techniques to that approach. This technique has been known to convince even the cleverest of professors.

UC at Dallas network security experts have a brief on what typical precautions their computer users should follow. One is that users should not visit sites that don't have their full trust as far as content is concerned. Another is to turn off java, and any active scripting within the browser. And another is to never launch any email attachments unless you absolutely know the sender and the email address of that sender. Plus, a more obvious but often loosely guarded rule, is to protect one's logon username and password, which means even if you write it down make sure that scrap of paper gets shredded before thrown into the waste basket. And know that no one from the school's IT or any other department will call to ask for private account information.

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